The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly opposes the systematic use by Russian authorities of intimidation, torture, torment and other methods of inhuman or degrading treatment against citizens of Ukraine who remain on the Ukrainian territory seized by the Russian occupying forces, or illegally and against their will are held on the territory of the Russian Federation.

The facts of use of torture and other methods of inhuman treatment against Stanislav Klykh, Mykola Karpyuk, Oleg Sentsov, Gennadiy Afanasyev and other Ukrainian held in Russian dungeons cause deep indignation.

We consider this policy of violence and humiliation on the part of the Russian Federation as irrefutable proof of political bias, groundlessness and absurdity of all cases that currently are underway against the captured Ukrainians as well as the inability of the Russian authorities to prove their accusations by legal means.

We also closely monitor all cases of persecution on political and ethnic grounds, intimidation, use of torture, kidnapping committed by Russian authorities or with its direct connivance in occupied Crimean Peninsula and in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The large scale, systematic character and continuity of this process affirm that Russia consciously chooses criminal route against humanity.

We emphasize that illegal and inhumane behaviour of the aggressor state and occupying state as regards the human rights and freedoms is a component of the manifestation of growing totalitarianism and dictatorship in the Russian Federation that poses a direct threat to European and international security.

Intentionally violating the fundamental norms of international law in the field of human rights, as enshrined inter alia in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966, Human rights in the administration of justice, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly resolution of 20 December 1971, the Declaration on the Right to Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly by resolution of 4 December 1986, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms dated 1950, the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe  adopted on August 1, 1975 and as well as in a range of international conventions that condemn torture and other inhumane treatment, thus the Russian Federation seeks to return the whole world in a time of lawlessness and disregard for human life and the supremacy of lex gladium.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine calls on the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, the Working Group of the UN Human Rights Council on Arbitrary Detention and the Working Group of the UN Human Rights Council on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to closely monitor the situation concerning the Ukrainian citizens illegally detained in the territory of the Russian Federation and in the territory of Ukraine occupied by Russia.

Ukraine calls on the world community to strengthen joint pressure on the Russian Federation as a flagrant breaker of international law, to prevent further abuse of the rights, freedoms, human dignity and particularly right to  life of Ukrainian citizens who became victims of aggression and criminal activities of Russia and its authorities.