MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti), Nadia Kulikova – Human rights organizations are unlikely to conduct thorough and unbiased investigations into war crimes committed in Ukraine's Donetsk region, where mass graves of civilians have recently been found, Marcus Papadopoulos, chief editor of British political magazine Politics First, told RIA Novosti Friday.
"Kiev…will either ban any Ukrainian human rights organization which wants to investigate the shocking and monstrous killings in the Donetsk [region] from doing so or, alternatively, will employ acts of violence against any organization seeking to establish the truth about what happened in the Donetsk [region]," Popadopoulos said.
"Regarding western human rights organizations, they have a history of being selective in what they investigate and have shown bias towards groups which had or have links to western governments," Popadopoulos added.
The expert noted that since the United States, along with its allies, is interested in supporting Kiev "in order to achieve its geo-strategic objectives", human rights organizations are unlikely to report accurately on the killings of civilians in Donetsk and other regions in southeastern Ukraine.
According to Popadopoulos, "the West will ignore the terrible crimes against humanity which the National Guard and other fascist paramilitaries groups have committed in south-eastern Ukraine" because "the West aided and abetted neo-Nazi groups in order to tear the country away from Russia and bring it into the West's sphere of influence".
Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United Nations, the Council of Europe and other international organizations should ensure an unbiased and fair investigation into war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Popadopoulos noted that "while the concept of the United Nations is honorable, the reality is that the United States, together with its allies in the world, use and abuse the UN for their own objectives".
Numerous war crimes were committed in the course of the Ukrainian crisis, which escalated when Kiev authorities, which came to power as a result of a February coup, launched a special military operation against independence supporters in eastern Ukraine in April.
In September, several mass graves filled with the bodies of massacred civilians and independence supporters, killed execution-style, were discovered 35 kilometers northeast of the city of Donetsk.
In May, Right Sector gunmen, together with pro-Kiev militants, blocked anti-government protesters in the House of Trade Unions in the city of Odessa and set the building on fire, killing at least 48 people and injuring more than 200.
Many civilians died as a result of shelling conducted by Ukrainian armed forces.
Shelling continues in southeastern Ukraine despite the ceasefire agreement reached between representatives from Kiev and independence supporters on September 5.
