Political Director of Lithuanian MFA Ambassador Asta Skaisgirytė urged Russia to immediately release illegally detained and imprisoned Ukrainian citizens
On 26 February Political Director of Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Asta Skaisgirytė participated in the Ministerial Panel Discussion on violations of human rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war and political hostages of the Russian Federation, which was organised by Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia in the margins of the High-Level Segment of the 40th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Political Director strongly condemned Russia’s on-going aggression against Ukraine and illegal and politically motivated detentions and imprisonments of Ukrainian citizens. She urged Russia to immediately release Ukrainian servicemen captured during Russia’s aggression in the Kerch Strait in November 2018, as well as other illegally detained Ukrainian citizens and political prisoners, to ensure their rights and to grant access to the international human rights monitors, ICRC and Ukrainian consular officials.
Ambassador Asta Skaisgirytė welcomed the recent EU internal consensus to introduce additional targeted sanctions against Russia and called on international community to adopt concrete measures to increase pressure upon Russia to implement UN GA resolutions and to fulfil its human rights obligations and commitments.
The event was attended by a large group of diplomats of the Member-States of the UN, representatives of NGOs. Other panellists included Edgars Rinkēvičs, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Sergiy Kyslytsya, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Kate Gilmore, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Lyudmila Denisova, Ukrainian Ombudswoman, and parents of Ukrainian prisoners of war and political hostages.
Following the Russia's aggression at Kerch Strait on 25 November 2018, Russia illegally detained 24 Ukrainian servicemen. More than 70 Ukrainian citizens remain illegally imprisoned on politically motivated charges in the Russian Federation and in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The UN human rights monitoring mechanisms have been denied access to the illegally occupied Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.
