Moscow calls on OSCE to be responsible for probe into crimes in Ukraine - Russian diplomat

Moscow is calling on the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to undertake responsibility for investigations in crimes committed in Ukraine, and not just to observe what Kiev is doing or not for that, Russia’s Ambassador to OSCE told a meeting of Organisation’s Permanent Council on Saturday.
The shelling is less intensive, “but it continues.”
“Civilians are being killed in Donetsk, Lugansk, Gorlovka, in other cities and villages in Ukraine’s east,” he said.
“This grave violation of the international humanitarian law should be stopped.”

“The amount of crimes is increasing,” the diplomat continued. “This is also mentioned in the latest report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Some provisions of the report reflect the alarming situation in that country.”
“Those are first of all the proofs of mass violations of the international humanitarian law and the human rights by Ukrainian military and the many battalions like Aidar, Azov, Dnepr, Kiev-1 and Kiev-2.”
“Those are of killings, torture, kidnapping, arbitrary detention, sexual violence and other serious crimes,” he said. “UN observers report the growing numbers of killed civilians, including children, in the non-selective shelling the Ukrainian military deliver on houses.”
The reports points to no results of probes into the mass killing in Maidan (Kiev’s Independence Square), in Odessa and Mariupol, to victims in the crash of Malaysia’s Boeing.
“Despite the measures Kiev is declaring, there are still no results of independent investigations,” he said. “Moreover, the document reads the Ukrainian investigators have been falsifying or destroying the proofs - first of all the bullets used in the clashes in Maidan.”
Russia hopes next reports “will reflect new evidences of the crimes committed by the Ukrainian military, including information about mass graves of civilians found in the Donetsk region.”
The ambassador pointed to the problems with the exchange of detained persons.
“Unacceptable are the attempts to hide proofs of inhuman treating prisoners, to “get” the required numbers of people to be exchanged by organising new arrests on suspicion of “sympathy for separatists”.”
“It is important that international organisations, including OSCE, are not only observing what the Ukrainian authorities are doing or not doing, but undertake responsibility for impartial and just investigations,” the Russian diplomat said. “It is already high time to stop accusing of everything the militia and to be excusing the Ukrainian law enforcers at the same time.”
Also Kelin said, that supporting Kiev’s “party of war” is a way to catastrophe, past visits of the U.S. emissaries were followed by escalation of violence.

“The major task now is to favour by all possible means stopping violence in Ukraine,” he said. “All the parties should observe the Minsk agreements, fixed in the Protocol of September 5 and Memorandum of September 19.”
“This is a base for transition for the national, open dialogue featuring all regions and political forces,” he said. “By only reaching national peace could be possible firm stable situation in Ukraine.”
Any calls for resuming the military operation, especially on the eve of the upcoming parliamentary elections, support in any form of the “party of war” are ways to catastrophe, the ambassador said.
“We could not leave unnoticed the meetings in Kiev (of the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State) Victoria Nuland. Past visits of American emissaries to Ukraine, as a rule, were followed by escalation of violence, by active punitive operations. We hope, this time Washington’s instructions are aimed at support of the peace process.”
The alarming events in Ukraine, he said, “are on the background of the endless anti-Russian hysteria.”
“We have seen clearly, this line has been supported actively and even inspired from the outside,” he said. “All factors, which are inconvenient for Kiev, are announced “Russian propaganda”.”
Moscow reiterates the call “for directing efforts on support of peace processes in Ukraine.”
“Ceasefire in the country’s east should be irreversible,” the diplomat said. “It is the key precondition for stable settlement, for development of the Ukrainian national dialogue, for national peace.
Moscow is alarmed at statements from some Ukrainian officials, claiming following the lustration may come political murders.
“Punishers of the Azov battalion, who are declaring openly their Nazi views and are using Nazi symbols, now are in the avant-garde of “fighting monuments”,” he said.
“Now desecrated is the monument to victims of the Holocaust in Odessa. Odessa’s Jewish community reports extremists have beaten up over 20 Jews last month.”
“Attacked and beaten up severely was MP Nestor Schufrich. Nationalists throw into waste bins officials and candidates for parliament deputies.”
“Those must be the democratic inventions of the Ukrainian extremists, which, in their opinion, fit well the high “European standards”,” he said.
“Alarming is that some officials [Igor Kolomoisky’s assistant Boris Filatov] have declared already that following the “waste bin lustration” will come the time of political murders,” the Russian ambassador said.
“Extremely alarming are the methods Ukraine’s Security Service is using jointly with radical groups in fighting dissent (the UN report mentions 1,000 detained on charges of “subversive activities.”).”
There is a clear tendency radical elements, including activists of punitive battalions, are getting to the power by means of participating in the parliamentary elections, the Russian diplomat said.