By KYIV. Nov 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns the Russian Federation for the deportation of Ukrainian citizens living in the temporarily occupied territories in Kherson and Zaporizhia regions of Ukraine.
“In particular, the Russian occupation administration began mass forced relocation of residents of the left-bank Kherson region, primarily Skadovsky and Kakhovsky districts, to the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea or the Russian Federation. Similar deportations are also being carried out by Russia in the Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk regions, as well as in Crimea,” the statement reads.
The MFA stressed that against the backdrop of ongoing deportations, alarming reports are also circulating about Russian troops mining the Kakhovska hydroelectric power station, the detonation of which could cause a large-scale man-made and humanitarian catastrophe.
The ministry noted that such actions of Russia grossly violate international law.
“The deportation of residents of the temporarily occupied south is accompanied by looting by the Russian occupiers of industrial, infrastructural, cultural, educational and medical institutions, as well as private houses and apartments. Russia’s infliction of large-scale humanitarian suffering on innocent children, women and the elderly is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as well as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” the statement says.
The Foreign Ministry called on the international community to condemn the Russian Federation for the forced displacement of residents of Ukraine, to impose new sanctions against the Russian Federation, as well as to strengthen military assistance to Ukraine to liberate its temporarily occupied territories.
