Ukraine protests against Russian authorities' attack on rights of Ukrainian minority

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has protested against the ongoing attack by the Russian authorities on the rights of the Ukrainian minority in Russia, the ministry's press service has reported.

The ministry said that as part of Russia's state policy of forced assimilation during 2011-2020, Russia liquidated the Federal National and Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians in Russia, the Association of Ukrainians in Russia, Omsk regional NGO Siberian Center of Ukrainian Culture Siryi Klyn, recognized the Ukrainian World Congress as an "undesirable organization" and destroyed the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow.

According to the report, another manifestation of the Russian authorities' efforts to erase the national and ethnic identity of Ukrainians in Russia was the decision by the Artyomovsk City Court of the Primorsky Territory to liquidate the autonomous non-profit organization Far Eastern Ukrainian Spiritual Cultural and Educational Center Prosvita.

"Decisions to forcibly close the Prosvita Center and other centers of Ukrainian culture in Russia a bright example of true 'Russian hospitality' for citizens of other countries the affinity with whom the Russian authorities continue to prove so desperately, encouraging the acquisition of Russian citizenship," the statement said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry states that the Russian authorities not only do not demonstrate their intention to protect the rights of Ukrainians in Russia, but also limit their opportunities to participate in the decision-making process on issues that affect them, preventing any attempts to self-organize.

"The Russian Federation must fulfill its international legal obligations, in particular in accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages," the statement said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called on the international community to properly assess the rapid deterioration of the human rights situation in Russia, to condemn and increase political and diplomatic pressure on the Russian authorities to end the attack on the rights of the Ukrainian national minority in Russia.

The Ukrainian World Congress in October strongly condemned the decision of a Russian court to liquidate the Far Eastern Ukrainian Spiritual Cultural and Educational Center Prosvita in Vladivostok as another manifestation of a systemic policy of persecuting the Ukrainian community in Russia in order to destroy Ukrainian public life.

op