MOSCOW, March 2 (RAPSI) – Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, said on Monday that those who turn to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as a result of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine may apply for help.

The Federation Council will provide support by its own means as well as in cooperation with state agencies and ministries to those who file applications with the court, Kosachev said.

He added that claims may be filed to other international institutions.

The UN human rights office presented last August a report on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine urging authorities of the country to immediately carry out investigation into the alleged gross violations of human rights and international law. The report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presented a wide array of human rights abuses allegedly committed both by Ukrainian government forces and separatists in southeastern regions of the country where at least 36 people were killed every day.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said in January that a criminal case over the genocide of Russian speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine had been opened.

Olga Kovitidi, a representative of the Republic of Crimea in the Federation Council, proposed in February that a special tribunal for Ukraine should be established to investigate the death of civilians in the conflict.

In the meantime, there are more than 160 individual applications pending before the ECHR, lodged against Ukraine or Russia or both. More than 20 of those applications are related to the events in Crimea, while over 140 applications concern the developments in Eastern Ukraine, according to the court.