Dear Sir,
I am writing regarding the article “Ukraine MUST get visa-free travel to EU, nation demands as it offers more trade” (November 24, 2016), saying that “Ukraine has been in the grip of a bloody civil war which has claimed thousands of lives since it broke out in late November 2013. The conflict was sparked after Russian-backed separatists, who are being armed by Mr Putin, staged a coup against the government and tried to set up autonomous states in the east of the country”.
I would like to stress on a complete inaccuracy of such wording which creates a false and misleading reader’s perception of what is going on in Eastern Ukraine.
The whole civilized world, including all the leading international organizations, has already acknowledged the fact that there is no civil war in Ukraine but Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Kremlin’s wide scale military aggression in Eastern Ukraine with thousands of its regular armed forces, tanks, artillery, multiple rocket launch systems and other weaponry stationed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
I would also like to draw your attention to that fact that the recently published annual report of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has clearly acknowledged that there is an armed conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. By this, the Hague has sent Moscow an important signal that all Russia's unlawful international activities as a state-aggressor are taken into account and monitored by the International Criminal Court Prosecutor.

Sincerely,
Natalia Galibarenko
Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland