KYIV. April 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Former co-rapporteur of PACE Monitoring Committee on Ukraine Hanne Severinsen has said that measures to oppose Russian propaganda must be taken.

Severinsen said that she had recently participated in a big conference and saw the presentation on how such news from Crimea were made. There were pictures that had been taken from one website and used as ones illustrating the situation in Crimea. It is very important to create a website that will allow monitoring fake information, Severinsen said in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine in Thursday.

According to her, it would be useful if residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, who left their homes and moved to western Ukraine and Kyiv, were to talk about their own impressions in Russian language and compare their opinions with one presented by Russian media.

A lot of people from Donetsk and Luhansk regions believe that fascist and Nazis came to power in Kyiv. Reports by Ukrainian media aren't enough for them. It's important for them to hear their landsmen talk about what's happening in Kyiv and western Ukraine in the Russian language, Severinsen said.

She said that the situation in Ukraine wasn't ideal today. There are many problems, but the country is really trying to conduct reforms and reinvent itself. This is what has to be said.

Severinsen also said she was alarmed with the human rights situation in Crimea. She said that what was happening was awful and unacceptable. According to her, a special commission tasked with gathering facts of human rights violations in Crimea was created in the Council of Europe. She said it had been done to counteract Russian propaganda machine.

As for the effect this propaganda has, in Denmark, where Severinsen lives, it's not very efficient, as a habit of verifying information is very developed in this country, but this propaganda, particularly concerning Crimea, works in other countries, a lot of people trust Russian views on the situation, she summed up.