Over 9,800 people have been killed, about 23,000 have been wounded and almost 1.8 million have been forced to flee from the war in Donbas after Russia unleashed aggression against Ukraine three years ago, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
”The appalling number of victims highlights the immorality of Kremlin`s war against the Ukrainian people: over 9,800 Ukrainian people were killed, about 23,000 were wounded and almost 1.8 million became internally displaced persons,” the ministry said in a statement on the third anniversary of the Russian Federation`s military aggression against Ukraine.
Three years have passed since the treacherous attack by the neighboring state, despite its commitment to respect Ukraine`s sovereignty and independence, as well as its status of one of the guarantors of security and territorial integrity of Ukraine under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
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”Some 7.2% of Ukrainian territory has been seized by Russia and millions of citizens of Ukraine live there under occupation and amid endless terror. Russia persists in sending new fighters, weaponry and ammunition to Ukraine through the section of the Ukrainian-Russian state border of 409.7 km long, which remains out of control of the Ukrainian government,” the statement said.
”Although the Revolution of Dignity clearly reconfirmed the aspirations of the Ukrainian people to build European, democratic and prosperous Ukraine, the Kremlin responded by attempting to deprive Ukrainians of the right to define their future by their own. Russia launched a well-planned military operation, which resulted in the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as well as bloodshed in Donbas,” the ministry said.
Thereby Russia has challenged the value-based world order in an attempt to revive the geopolitical thinking of the past with domination of the rule of force and spheres of influence, the ministry said.
”Occupied Crimea, closed for any form of international control and monitoring, is now an area seeing systemic violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, targeting, first of all, Ukrainian activists and the indigenous people of Crimea – Crimean Tatars. Citizens of Ukraine are being groundlessly detained and imprisoned, activists disappear without a trace, their families and friends are facing intimidation. The Mejlis, a representative body of the Crimean Tatar people, has been banned,” the ministry described the current situation in the occupied territory.
