After the change of powers in Kiev in February 2014, the hotheads began to
claim that Ukraine was moving in the direction of building a mono-ethnic state.
Despite the action taken by the public officials to mitigate such extremist statements,
the mass demonstrations flooded the Southeast Ukraine, and most importantly,
Donbas, the most passionate part of the country. The civil war unleashed.
Unfortunately, the new government has chosen a forceful resolution of
the
ethnic
conflict
by
declaring
the
anti-terrorist
operation
against
the
Russian-speaking rebels in Donbass. It is only after concluding the Minsk agreements
with the active involvement of the OSCE in September this year, did Kiev recognise
that there was no military solution to this problem. There is still a lack of a clear
programme to stop the violence and atrocity crimes.
We, human rights activists, believe that it is impossible to resolve
the Ukraine’s crisis without decentralisation of power and redistribution of resources,
whatever form it may take: federalisation, autonomy, or other. This would allow
the regions to use the actual economic output of their productivity. The right to use
minority languages, including the Russian language, on a par with the state language
should be guaranteed in all spheres of life in the regions inhabited by the minority
language-speaking population.
We also rely on the aid from the UN agencies, especially the Office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, whose representatives are
now working actively in Ukraine, in ending the war and the massive violations of
human rights, including minority rights, which are very vulnerable in this armed
conflict.