Lithuania calls on Russia to stop spreading disinformation and anti-European propaganda which came from a quote by the Lithuanian ambassador Raimonda Murmokaitė

Lithuania calls on Russia to stop spreading disinformation, and anti-Ukrainian and anti-European propaganda. It supports report by Ivan Simonovic, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, on Ukraine.

Lithuanian Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite, Permanent Representative of  Lithuania to the United Nations in New York, stated on April 16 that the report of  the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights published on April l5 clearly refutes Russia’s inflammatory narrative which it uses to justify its illegal actions in Ukraine. The report states that human rights violations of its ethnic minorities in eastern Ukraine, Crimea, or elsewhere in the country, were neither widespread nor systematic, and that since the current Government took power at the end of February, tensions have decreased, along with allegations of human rights violations. In this relation, she urged Russia to stop spreading disinformation and anti-Ukrainian and anti-European propaganda.

According to Ambassador Murmokaite, “Crimea’s annexation and now the destabilization of eastern Ukraine is not about the protection of Russian speaking minorities or alleged Ukraine’s radical extremism. It’s about obstructing and preventing the May 25 elections,” in a statement she delivered in the UN Security Council meeting on the human rights situation in Ukraine. UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan imonovic, who briefed the UN Security Council on April 16, stated that the next report on the human rights situation in Ukraine will be issued on May 15. The meeting was organized at the request of the Lithuanian delegation.

In the Lithuanian ambassador’s statement, she underlined the importance of impartial reporting on the human rights situation in Ukraine (HRMMU) as this will help to prevent manipulation of information and expressed support for the work of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. “The mission must continue its work on the entire territory of Ukraine” she said,” including Crimea, in order to insure independent monitoring of the human rights situation on the peninsula. “

“Ukraine’s current Government”, Lithuanian Ambassador Murmokaite explained, “is set to address a wide range of issues, including human rights violations, language policy, rights of ethnic minorities, decentralization, combatting corruption, and strengthening accountability and the rule of law.” The Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations in New York also called on the international community to support the Ukrainian Government’s efforts to organize free and fair elections on May 25.