Brussels is weaponizing the issue of human rights to put pressure on Russia. This was stated by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, quoted by "Interfax".
Her comment was made after a media inquiry regarding the European Union (EU) report on human rights and democracy in the world. The passage describing the EU's own course of action towards Russia "especially stands out" in the document.
"In the section of the report dedicated to the specific country, this is called - nothing more than - a "military approach", through which Brussels apparently hopes to "justify" the blatant lies directed at our country, its own "double standards" and its silence on human rights violations committed against our citizens by the EU itself, she notes. In essence, the EU explicitly declares its efforts to weaponize human rights issues to put pressure on Russia," Zakharova pointed out.
In addition, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson draws attention to the section on Ukraine, describing it as "toothless" and on certain issues even laudatory.
According to Zakharova, "in this report, Brussels is once again trying to preach from a self-proclaimed position of moral authority, presenting itself as "a force for good in the world".
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Zakharova noted that "such statements look especially cynical against the backdrop of the constantly deteriorating human rights situation in the EU itself and its member states".
The spokeswoman said that "the report includes all the standard EU clichés and slogans" and that "the level of criticism is determined not by the actual state of affairs, but by the degree of loyalty of a given country to the EU".
"Brussels no longer even hides the fact that it uses the human rights agenda to openly interfere in the internal affairs of countries pursuing an independent policy", the commentary says.
Zakharova also noted the publication of a joint report by the Foreign Ministries of the Russian Federation and Belarus, entitled "On the State of Human Rights in Some Countries".
"Anyone interested - including the foreign audience - can compare the quality of the two documents in terms of genuine concern for the observance of human rights," she concluded.
Ukraine has struck Russian oil refineries in the Ryazan and Perm regions, as well as in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, quoted by from Ukrinform, writes BTA.
„Our soldiers continue to adequately respond to Russian strikes against Ukraine. An oil refinery in the Ryazan region was struck“, Zelensky wrote on the social network Telegram.
„Our long-range force was used against oil refineries in the Perm region and Tatarstan, as well as a storage facility and launch pad for attack drones in the Kursk region“, the Ukrainian leader added.
Zelensky noted that a target in the waters of the Black Sea was also hit, without disclosing further details.
According to Ukrinform, in August Ukrainian forces carried out a series of strikes deep into Russian territory. Some of the hit sites are up to 1,900 km from the Ukrainian-Russian border. The Ukrainian strikes hit 12 large oil refineries, two gas processing and petrochemical plants, two military-industrial complex enterprises and other important sites, the Ukrainian news agency lists.
Donald Trump's envoys, who first visited Moscow and then Kiev, presented new, "more effective" proposals aimed at ending the war with Russia, the Ukrainian presidency reported, quoted by Agence France-Presse.
However, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he feared the war would continue into the winter due to Russian President Vladimir Putin's unwillingness to negotiate directly with him.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law, presented new, "more effective" proposals in Kiev proposals to end the war with Russia, a senior Ukrainian presidential official told AFP this evening.
Volodymyr Zelensky held his first talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner earlier today, after which the Ukrainian president did not seem optimistic.
“We count on the support of our European partners if the war continues into the winter, which seems likely for now“, he said at a press conference after his talks in Kiev with Donald Trump's envoys.
For his part, Steve Witkoff, who earlier today described the talks in Kiev as “very substantive“ after being received in the Kremlin yesterday evening, stressed that Moscow and Kiev must make compromises to find a way out of the war that has been going on since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Both sides will have to make compromises and reduce their differences, and we believe we have the necessary elements to achieve that“, he said. "It is very difficult, but we are determined to do it," added Witkoff.
However, the Ukrainian president continued to insist that the territorial issue, which is central to the conflict, can only be resolved at meetings between heads of state.
"I want to stick to my position that such complex issues (regarding territories — ed. note) can only be resolved at the level of heads of state," said Volodymyr Zelensky, who has long called on his Russian counterpart for direct negotiations, but Vladimir Putin has refused.
A new round of talks was also held in Kiev today with the participation of the two American envoys, the Ukrainian delegation and European advisers - German Gunter Sauter, British Jonathan Powell and French Emmanuel Bohn.
This is the first visit to Ukraine by Witkoff, a businessman close to Trump, and Kushner since the beginning of their mediation in the conflict.
After returning to the White House in early 2025, Donald Trump has launched several rounds of talks aimed at finding a way out of the war, which began with the Russian invasion in 2022 and has become the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. So far, however, these attempts have not led to any significant breakthrough.
The negotiations are mainly blocked by the territorial issue. Moscow is demanding that the Ukrainian army completely withdraw from the eastern Donetsk region, which Kiev categorically refuses.
It is now unclear whether the proposal conveyed by Trump's envoys includes the cession of Ukrainian territory, as he had previously hinted.
On the occasion of the new round of negotiations, Vladimir Putin announced a cessation of strikes on Kiev for three days, from Saturday to Monday inclusive. Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, announced a halt to attacks on Moscow for the same period.
However, hostilities continue in other places in Ukraine and Russia.
On Sunday night, Russia attacked Ukraine with 108 drones and missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force announced. They said they had shot down most of them, but specified that 11 sites in the country were still hit in the bombing.
For its part, the Russian army said that it had neutralized 258 Ukrainian drones aimed at Russia last night. One of the strikes hit a plant in the city of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow. Russian media ASTRA claims that it was an oil refinery.
And the operational headquarters of Russia's Belgorod region reported two deaths and two injuries in the region when a drone hit a car, TASS reported.