On October 13, 2015, the Chairman of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) General Council, Co-President of the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations (VAAD) Ukraine Josef  Zissels spoke at the International forum “Kyiv Dialogues” (“Between Crises and Reforms: Human Rights and Justice in Ukraine”). The report was titled “Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia in Ukraine Amidst Military Conflict and Crisis.”

The EAJC General Council chairman presented the results of the xenophobia research program that is implemented by the the National Minority Rights Monitoring Group together with the EAJC. According to the group's data, to date there have been no violent anti-Semitic crimes in 2015. However, acts of anti-Semitic vandalism continue to happen from time to time. The Ukrainian government has stated its resolute intent to combat manifestations of anti-Semitism; however, the investigation of the reported cases has been extremely slow and ineffective.
 
Josef Zissels noted that the leaders of the puppet regimes erected in Russian-occupied territories in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions (so-called “DNR” and “LNR”) actively exploit the alleged Jewish heritage of Ukrainian leaders to discredit them in the eyes of the leaders' allies, while the representatives of various influential groups in terroristic organizations accuse their opponents of having Jewish blood in the course of internal polemics and boundary enforcement.
 
The monitoring data shows that the most pressing problem in inter-ethnic relationship is the situation of the Crimean Tatars in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. The occupational government has been forbidding peaceful gatherings, persecuting activists, and disbanding Crimean Tatar mass media outlets and other institutions as part of an intentional, systematic policy obviously intended to suppress the independent national Crimean Tatar movement.

The VAAD Ukraine co-president stressed that “the main problem which defines not only the situation with xenophobia in Ukraine, but all human rights infringements in its territory, is Russian [military] aggression.” Zissels believes that the efforts of the global community, including organizations that focus on defending human rights and countering xenophobia, need to be focused on stopping Rusian agression and the occupation of Ukrainian territory.
 
The Ukrainian-German “Kyiv Dialogues” forum convened in 2015 for the eleventh time. This year's theme was “Human rights in Ukraine in conditions of armed conflict and the justice system reform.” The forum was organized by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and the German European Exchange organization.