MOSCOW, July 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russian lawmakers will promote the White Book, a Foreign Ministry compilation of human rights violations in Ukraine during the conflict, to provide "objective information" about the crisis in the country, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko said during a press conference Tuesday.
"We will distribute the White Book material, and by doing so, we will remove the blockade of objective information, and convey the truth about what has happened in Ukraine to the people of all countries," the speaker said.
The ministry finished the second edition of the book in late-June. The volume covers the period from April to mid-June 2014 and talks about the tragic events in Odessa, where more than 70 people died in a fire after clashes between independence supporters and nationalists, as well as an airstrike on a Luhansk administration building that killed eight, and other deadly cases of violence over the past months.
The first edition of the White Book came out in Russian and English in May and described the most heinous human rights violations perpetrated by Kiev in Ukraine’s east between late November 2013 and the end of March 2014. Moscow sent the book to the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), urging them to carry out an investigation.
Depending on how the situation develops in Ukraine, the ministry may publish one or two more White Books, its Commissioner for Human Rights Konstantin Dolgov said last week.
Since mid-April, Kiev authorities have been conducting a special military operation in the east of Ukraine to suppress the independence movement. The violence intensified after the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics declared independence from Ukraine in May. Hundreds of people, including civilians have died in both regions over the past months.
Moscow has described the ongoing military action as a punitive operation and called for an immediate end to the bloodshed.
