Updated 3:33 p.m. Moscow Time
GENEVA, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – UN observers need access to mass graves discovered near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, a senior official with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Wednesday.
Gianni Magazzeni, chief of the OHCHR Americas Europe and Central Asia Branch, told reporters that any reported violation of human rights needs to be thoroughly investigated.
He said UN officials currently have no access to the area because of security concerns.
The UN observers received the first information about the graves from independence supporters fighting for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Magazzeni said. He also noted that the next UN report would elaborate on this issue in detail.
Earlier on Wednesday, RIA Novosti examined the UN report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, which covered the period from August 18 to September 16, and said that it did not contain information on the mass graves.
On September 23, several mass graves with over 400 bodies of civilians and pro-independence fighters, apparently killed execution-style, were found northeast of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
Independence supporters of southeastern Ukraine claim that the massacre was carried out by Ukraine's National Guard fighters, who had stayed in the area since April, when Kiev launched its military operation in the region. Ukrainian authorities have denied the accusation.
Last week, Russian Investigative Committee claimed it had irrefutable evidence of the National Guard and the Right Sector nationalist group's participation in the mass killings.
Earlier in the week, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the chief of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Didier Burkhalter have agreed on the importance of a thorough investigation into the incident.
