Violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as humanitarian law, committed by Russia in Ukraine, threaten the proper functioning of the international human rights system, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, published on Saturday morning on the website of the Foreign Ministry.

"We are convinced that this can only be prevented by joint international efforts to strengthen the ability to more effectively respond, prevent and punish such crimes," the ministry said in the statement.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also called on the international community to increase pressure on Russia "to stop violating human rights and release all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens."

"We also emphasize the need to create a special tribunal regarding the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Punishing the Russian Federation and its officials will make it impossible to repeat Russian aggression in the future," the ministry said in the statement.

It is noted that 74 years after the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Russia, which still remains a member of the UN, "openly demonstrates disrespect to principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration, European Convention on Human Rights as well as in other international legal instruments."

"Violations of human rights and freedoms by the aggressor state have continued since 2014... Since 24 February 2022, investigative bodies of the National Police of Ukraine have launched 47,822 criminal proceedings for crimes committed in Ukraine by members of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and their henchmen. More than 140 Ukrainian citizens remain illegally arrested by Russia on politically motivated charges, and this number continues to rise. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion to Ukraine, the Russian occupation administration has handed down a number of void sentences to political prisoners of Crimea, whose total prison terms already amount to more than 1,300 years," according to the statement.

"Russia must immediately put an end to the oppression of political, linguistic, cultural and religious rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, stop illegal detention and illegal persecution of Ukrainian citizens," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.