Occupation of Crimea is not a reason for denying OSCE access to peninsula – Tsymbaliuk

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk said this during a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on Thursday, July 16, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“As the SMM mandate covers entire territory of Ukraine, we also remind the Russian side that its temporary occupation of Crimea must not be used as an excuse for denying access of the Mission to the peninsula. The SMM should be able to establish facts on the dire situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Crimea and report them to the OSCE participating States," he said.

In this context, the Ukrainian diplomat drew the attention of the delegations present to the recently published report by the UN Secretary General on the human rights situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, based on monitoring and documenting numerous violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the annexed peninsula.

"We join the calls expressed in the Report to the authorities of the Russian Federation to lift restrictions imposed on the Crimean Tatar community to conserve its representative institutions, to ensure the availability of education in the Ukrainian language, to end the conscription of Ukrainian nationals residing in Crimea into the armed forces of the Russian Federation, to restore the violated property rights of all former owners, and to end the transfers of protected persons outside the occupied territory," Tsymbaliuk said.

The permanent representative of Ukraine expressed his gratitude to all the delegations of the OSCE participating States, which raised these issues earlier in the meetings of the Permanent Council, and encouraged them to keep the issue of Crimea high on their agendas.

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