Russia demands reports of prohibited weapons use by Kiev to be thoroughly studied
14 June 2014, 15:39 -- The Russian Foreign Ministry urges that 'the reports on the use by Ukraine of types of weapons prohibited by international law need to be studied thoroughly.'
'It is totally unacceptable when actions aimed at suppressing protest movements are taken and troops are used against civilians under the guise of the fight against terrorism especially using radical nationalists (with external support and approval), like it happens in Ukraine. It's an unacceptable form of violence, a path to a large-scale civil war, and nothing else than a crime against the people,' Alexander Zmeyevsky, the Russian president's special envoy on international cooperation on counterterrorism and transnational organized crime, said in a statement posted on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Earlier Russia denied the false accusations of Ukraine's territorial integrity violations, occupation, and assistance of terrorism made at the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly addressing the UN Global Counterterrorism Strategy, Interfax reports the Russian Foreign Ministry saying.
The speculation on Russia's involvement in the escalation of tensions in Ukraine is not confirmed by anything, the Russian Foreign Ministry is quoted as saying by Interfax. 'Moreover, we do not accept unproven allegations on Russia's intervention in the situation in Ukraine and on military units and weapons being sent there. I will respond with the words said by Russian President Vladimir Putin: 'There are no Russian armed forces and Russian instructors in Ukraine. There have never been,'' he stated.
'We are not supplying weapons there. Moreover we have recently taken steps to reduce the concentration of Russian armed forces on our territory near the Ukrainian border,' Zmeyevsky said. On June 7, the Russian president ordered the Russian Federal Border Guard Service to intensify the protection of the Russian-Ukrainian border to prevent illegal border-crossing, Zmeyevsky added.
'This order is being fulfilled, which cannot be said of the observance of it obligations by Ukraine. Specifically, aUkrainian infantry combat vehicle violated the Russian border in the Rostov region in the early hours of June 13. We regard such actions by Ukraine as a major violation of the fundamental provisions of international law, an illegal act that will not promote peaceful settlement of the conflict in southeastern Ukraine,' Zmeyevsky said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has demand that such provocations, which complicate the process of rebuilding ofbilateral Russian-Ukrainian dialogue, which has just begun, should stop.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has also called for the military action, violence, and the so-called anti-terrorist operation, which is essentially a punitive operation, to be immediately halted, for the troops to be withdrawn, and for full fulfillment by Ukraine of the Geneva statement of April 17, 2014, the 'roadmap' developed by OSCE Chairman-in-Office Didier Burkhalter.
'We still expect appropriate steps from the new administration of Ukraine,' Zmeyevsky said.'Russia consistently opposes terrorism. We will never agree that the fight against this challenge should include punitive operation against civilians and that the authority of the international community, including the UN, should be used for these purposes,' he said.
'What the UN should be working, along with the assistance to the halting of the violence and humanitarian tasks (it is known that proposals to this effect have been submitted by Russia to the UN Security Council), is to study issues relating to the prevention of the radicalization of public and political tendencies, which, among other things, lead to terrorism and violence. We are talking primarily about the dissemination of extremist and terrorist ideas under the slogans of ultra-nationalism, neo-Nazism, and fascism. This danger should be curbed while it is 'embryonic,' urgently and effectively,' the statement said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the solution of these tasks requires the creation of a united front, which once defeated fascism. 'Attempts to use Nazism and extremists serving it in some geopolitical interests are unacceptable. We have done this already, and everyone should remember what results such actions brought in the 1930s,' the ministry said.
'Don't disguise crimes against your own people with counterterrorism. Sooner or later, you will have to bear responsibility for it, to court, to the international community, and to your own conscience,' Zmeyevsky said in his statement.
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