MFA calls for increased pressure on Russia following third report of UN Secretary-General on Crimea

As noted in its commentary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine took note of the third report of the UN Secretary-General “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine”, prepared pursuant to UN General Assembly resolution 74/168 and released on October 8.

"We call on the international community to respond to the occupying power's ongoing violations of international law in the occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular by increasing political, diplomatic, and sanctions pressure," the Foreign Ministry emphasized.

Ukrainian diplomats stated that, contrary to UN General Assembly resolution 74/168 and numerous calls from the international community, the Russian Federation had once again ignored the UN General Assembly's mandate and denied UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission’s access to the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula.

The Foreign Ministry reminded that a key element of the report was the call of the UN Secretary-General on the Russian Federation as an occupying power to stop gross human rights violations and to comply with all its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law. In particular, the Russian authorities were required to stop tortures, illegal arrests, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, to ensure freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, to lift the ban on the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, etc.

In the context of the policy deliberately pursued by the Russian occupation authorities to change the demographic composition of the Crimean Peninsula, the report highlights the destruction of private buildings of the Crimean Tatars as an example of forced evictions. Special attention is paid to the growing number of internally displaced persons from the temporarily occupied Crimea, Ukrainian diplomats underscore.

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