The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine welcomes the adoption on 22 December 2018 by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the resolution ‘Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine.’

The decision is yet another evidence of the strong support of the international community for the need to uphold human rights on the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

The General Assembly points out that the overall human rights situation on the Ukrainian peninsula if sharply deteriorating and, despite the urges by the international community, the Russian Federation continues to blatantly violate its obligations as an occupying power. The delegations condemned Russia’s non-compliance with the provisions of the previous UNGA resolutions 71/205 and 71/190 adopted in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

The states also condemned the ongoing arbitrary arrests and detentions, disappearances, searches, violence and ill-treatment of activists, which became an everyday reality in what has been until recently a peaceful and stable Ukrainian autonomous republic.

We demand the aggressor-state to stop the total lawlessness on the occupied territory and to ensure that the international law is upheld there, to release all illegally detained persons, including political prisoners Oleg Sentsov, Volodymyr Balukh and Emir-Usein Kuku.  Be assured that Ukraine will make every necessary effort to bring to account those responsible for human rights violations and abuses.

It is important to emphasize that the resolution calls upon all the states and international organizations to refer to Crimea as the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.

The adoption of the resolution demonstrates once again the firm support of Ukraine by the international community despite desperate attempts by Russia to block the resolution and allocation of financial resources for the monitoring of human rights situation on the peninsula.

We in Ukraine are sincerely grateful to every state that gave its vote in support of the UN GA resolution ‘Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine.’