Moscow Preparing Another White Book on Human Rights Violations in Ukraine

MOSCOW, November 24 (Sputnik) – The Russian Foreign Ministry is preparing another edition of the White Book on human rights violations in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry's Human Rights Ombudsman Konstantin Dolgov said Monday.

"We are close to the release of another edition of the White Book on grave human rights violations in Ukraine. I hope that it [the book] will be soon approved by our management. After that we will naturally make sure that it is widely distributed just like we did before. It contains details on all the serious violations committed in the last few months. I stress it once again that regrettably we have to note that no serious investigations have been conducted and no one has been punished [for these violations]," Dolgov said at a hearing in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on the current situation in Ukraine.

In mid-April, Kiev authorities launched a military operation against independence supporters in eastern Ukraine. The offensive triggered a humanitarian crisis in the affected areas, prompting Russia to send in several humanitarian convoys with food, fuel and medicine to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Numerous human rights violations have been reported in Ukraine as the tensions in the country had been running high.

The first edition of the White Book on human rights violations in Ukraine was published 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 OSCE, urging both to carry out an investigation. The ministry finished the second edition of the book, covering the period from April to mid-June 2014, in late June.

International human rights organizations have also repeatedly pointed to human rights abuses in eastern Ukraine. On November 12, Human Rights Watch said that cluster munition rockets were fired in Donetsk in October from positions held by Kiev-backed forces.