UN Human Rights Office published a report today on Ukraine.
The report shows that there is no credible evidence for concerns that
Russian-speakers are under threat in Ukraine. As it says:
‘…
photographs of the Maidan protests greatly exaggerated stories of harassment of
ethnic Russians by Ukrainian nationalist extremists. Misinformed reports of
them coming armed to persecute ethnic Russians in Crimea were systematically
used to create a climate of fear and insecurity that reflected on support to
integration of Crimea into the Russian Federation.’
The report confirms that exaggerated, misinformed reports
have been used to incite fear in Southern and Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. It is now
Ukraine's duty to improve rule of
law institutions, along with reducing corruption and poverty.
Furthermore, UN reports 121 dead, 140-150 missing since
February. In Crimea, there were ‘credible allegations’ of
harassment, arbitrary arrest and torture targeting activists and journalists
who did not support the ballot referendum on 16 March.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reports that
special units, responsible for civil order in Eastern Ukraine, have been formed
in Dnipropetrovs’k, Kharkiv, Poltava, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Luhansk regions.
Moreover, the Border Service of Ukraine reports the detention 4 couriers who
were bringing 1.8 million UAH (90,445 GBP), into
mainland Ukraine from Crimea to pay for ‘anti-Ukrainian demonstrations.’
Ukrainian Special Service agents detained officers of the
Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian
Federation (GRU). The Russian officers were involved in the provocations in the
east. Also, a conversation between Pro-Russian activists and Russian operatives
has been apparently discovered. In the conversation they discuss the transfer
of weapons from Russia to Donestk.
In Kyiv, Ukraine’s Parliament passed legislation that all
citizens of Ukraine can enter mainland Ukraine from Crimea on Ukrainian
documents. The law also guarantees social payments and pensions to citizens of
Ukraine in Crimea.
Maidan self-defense activists continue to guard the
Parliament buildings in Kyiv today. Protesters outside the building are
demanding the authorities to take stronger actions against separatism in the
Eastern regions.
According to Mykhailo Wynnyckiy (professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy), the current conflict is less “Russian” vs.
“Ukrainian” and more about criminal corruption vs. hope for law and order. He argues that the events
began in Crimea, and extended on the eastern regions, are not directly related to the domestic
agenda of the protest movement that ousted Yanukovych from the Presidency. The current
events in Ukraine are not a ‘crisis’, but part of
Putin’s long term plan to
‘re-conquer’ Ukraine and bring it back into a Russian sphere of influence.
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