Ukraine at OSCE calls on Russia to grant international organizations access to Crimea and Donbas

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk said this during an online meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on Thursday, May 14, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the occupied areas of Donbas and Crimea related to the spread of coronavirus," Ambassador Tsymbaliuk stated addressing the national delegations of the participating States.

He recalled that at the recent meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation, the Ukrainian delegation emphasized that Russia continued to conceal data on the spread of coronavirus in the temporarily occupied territories, neglecting the life and health of the local population and illegally detained Ukrainian citizens.

“The Russian occupation authorities restrict access of international organisations and humanitarian missions, in particular SMM and ICRC, to those territories. Thus, they deprive population of critical aid and prevent the Ukrainian government and the world community from verifying information provided by human rights organizations on the lack of overall health care and low coverage of the population with coronavirus diagnostics in the temporary occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas," Tsymbaliuk said.

He stressed that Ukraine called on the Russian side to lift all restrictions on the access of international bodies to those territories.

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