KYIV. March 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine's parliamentary committee for human rights and ethnic relations has expressed concern about growing xenophobia in Ukraine, Committee Chairman Ihor Sharov said in a letter to the prime minister.

"Xenophobia at an every-day level is rather high in Ukraine and it has been growing, according to the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Sociology. This is typical of relations between residents of eastern and western Ukraine, and between interregional groups," he writes.

Sharov also said that Ukrainian labor migrants from Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia are targets in xenophobic attacks.

Instances of stark Russo-phobia are sometimes reported among Ukrainians, he also writes.

Ethnic and racial-motivated crimes are becoming particularly common amoung youth groups, he said.

The letter cites figures provided by Ukraine's ethnic communities, indicating that 70 people were targeted in hate attacks, and six of them were killed, the letter says.

"Indicatively, a sharp increase in attacks on representatives of ethnic minorities have been observed since the autumn of 2006," Sharov writes.

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