Moscow, May 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) -On Tuesday Moscow said it expected Ukrainian authorities to punish the Ukrainian nationalists who physically assaulted Russian diplomats on Monday in a bid to stop them from laying a wreath at a World War II memorial in Lviv, Ukraine.
"We are forced to state with indignation that, with practically no interference from the authorities, rampaging youths took a wreath with a ribbon colored as the Russian national flag away from members of staff of the Russian Consulate General in Lviv and crushed it with their feet. The wreath was to be laid at the monument to Soviet soldiers on the Hill of Glory," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.
"We expect that those guilty will be found by local law enforcement agencies and receive the punishment that they deserve, and that situations of this kind will be excluded from the practice of bilateral relations," he said.
"What has taken place is an act of flagrant violation of basic legislation on human rights, including standards laid down by the European Convention on Human Rights. We expect that the Ukrainian authorities will strictly comply with the international commitments of Ukraine to that effect," Lukashevich said.
"We also have to mention regretfully that Lviv and some other places in Western Ukraine were the scenes on May 9 of outrages by extremist nationalist forces who were harassing and insulting veterans and people for whom the Day of Victory over Fascism is a sacred day, a day of giving honors, paying respects and commemorating those who brought that victory to Europe by liberating it from Nazism," he said.
"We hope that the wise Ukrainian people will not allow extremists to derail the creative work of modern Ukraine or to hamper the sustained development of fruitful and mutually advantageous Russian-Ukrainian cooperation," the spokesman said.
Earlier the head of the Russian presidential council for human rights Mikhail Fedotov said that Russia-Ukraine relations at risk amid clashes in the country`s western city of Lviv on Victory Day.
