Russia feels UN report on Ukraine is biased

Moscow, May 16 (IANS) The Russian government Friday accused the UN of intending to "whitewash" Kiev authorities with its new report on the situation in Ukraine, as it termed it biased.

"This report has little to do with the actual state of affairs with human rights in Ukraine," Xinhua quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich as saying in a statement, referring to the report released earlier in the day by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Lukashevich accused the 36-page document of a "total absence of objectivity, blatant discrepancies and double standards".

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday the report, produced by her 34-strong monitoring team in Ukraine, showed "an alarming deterioration in the human rights situation in the east of the country, as well as serious problems in Crimea".

The report highlighted cases when the Ukrainian army had been accused of killing civilians and of being responsible for forced disappearances in the country's east.

Lukashevich said the authors of the report had implemented "a political order to whitewash the authorities in Kiev".

The OHCHR had published its first report on the human rights situation in Ukraine April 15, two days before a meeting in Geneva where the US, the European Union, Russia and Ukraine agreed on measures to normalise the situation.