GENEVA, July 30. /TASS/. Western countries use Ukraine as a bargaining chip in their hybrid war against Russia and are willing to forgive Kiev even its most atrocious crimes, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov told TASS.

According to him, in recent years, "the collective West has launched a full-scale hybrid war against Russia."

"Ukraine and its illegitimate 'expired' president are nothing more than a willing tool in this campaign, a kind of bargaining chip to whom anything, including the most terrible crimes, is forgiven," the diplomat said, while commenting on the lack of proper response from UN human rights bodies to the infringement of the Russian-speaking population’s rights in Ukraine, including the law signed by Vladimir Zelensky removing Russian from the list of protected languages.

When asked why UN human rights bodies have been recording violations of the linguistic rights of Russian speakers in Ukraine for years with no real action taken, Gatilov noted that the situation raises questions for the UN relevant agencies, primarily the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which "by definition should be defending human rights." The diplomat said that the reasons for "this regrettable situation lie in a whole range of both objective and subjective factors," citing the dominance of Western countries and their closest allies among the OHCHR’s main donors, as well as a staff mostly made up of natives from Western countries or dual citizens who once lived or studied in the West.

Gatilov added that the position of senior UN leadership, "which has repeatedly been caught obediently echoing anti-Russian rhetoric," has also a significant influence on the views of its staff members.