Russia was expelled from the UN Human Rights Council: Moscow tried to prevent this by threatening voting countries

Members of the United Nations supported Russia's exclusion from the Human Rights Council. This happened against the backdrop of massive atrocities by the Russian military against civilians in Ukraine. Writes about it Daily Mail.

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More than 90 countries voted to exclude Moscow from the Human Rights Council after the US initiative, while 24 countries, including those with despotic regimes such as China, Syria, Belarus and Zimbabwe - Russia's closest allies - voted against the measure. . Almost 60 countries abstained, including India, which continues to buy weapons from Russia.

Russia's expulsion from the 47-member council required a two-thirds majority of members, excluding abstentions.

Suspensions from the council are rare. Libya was eliminated in 2011 due to violence against protesters by forces loyal to then-leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The vote follows allegations that Russian troops have been systematically executing civilians in Bucha, a city northwest of Ukraine's capital Kyiv, and amid other reports of human rights violations since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion. to Ukraine on February 24.

Russia expressed regret at its exclusion from the Council, but promised to protect its interests.

“We regret this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “But we will continue to defend our interests in all possible legal ways.”

Initially, the suspension gave Russia the right to attend meetings, but without the right to vote. Then, on March 7, the Russian authorities announced that they were terminating their powers in the council ahead of schedule.

The resolution, adopted by the 193-member General Assembly draft, expresses "serious concern about the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine", especially in relation to reports of Russian human rights violations in the city of Bucha.

In Russia, everyone denies

Russia has threatened countries that voting "yes" or abstaining will be seen as an "unfriendly gesture" with repercussions for bilateral relations.

The country denies attacks on Ukrainian civilians. UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said that while Bucha was under Russian control, "not a single civilian was harmed by any kind of violence" despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

On the subject: The Ukrainian army liberated the village from Russian troops: a photo report about what is happening there now

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Serhiy Kyslytsya presented the US-initiated resolution ahead of the vote.

He called on UN members to suspend Russia's activities, saying it had committed "horrific human rights violations that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity."

"Russia's actions are out of bounds," he said. “Russia is not only violating human rights, it is shaking the foundations of international peace and security.”

China was one of 24 countries that voted "no" and Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun said: "We are against double standards and against putting pressure on other countries in the name of human rights."

Earlier, the G7 and Ukraine called on the council to vote for the removal of Russia.

"We are convinced that the time has come to suspend Russia's membership in the Human Rights Council," G7 foreign ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US said in a statement.

Atrocities in Bucha

Ukrainian officials are now in Bucha and other cities gathering evidence that Russian troops killed indiscriminately before retreating.

Ukrainian authorities said the bodies of at least 410 civilians were found in towns around Kyiv, victims of what President Volodymyr Zelensky called a Russian campaign of murder, rape, dismemberment and torture.

Some of the victims appear to have been shot at close range, and some were found with their hands tied.

Zelenskiy has previously called for Russia to be removed from the UN Security Council “so that it cannot block decisions on its own aggression.”

The G-XNUMX foreign ministers, who met on the sidelines of NATO in Brussels, said those responsible for "heinous acts and atrocities, including any attacks on civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure" will be held accountable.

“We welcome and support the ongoing work to investigate and gather evidence of these and other potential war crimes against humanity,” they said.

The ministers called on Russia to immediately halt its offensive against Ukraine and warned against the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

“We underline our unwavering support for Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and express our readiness to provide further assistance, including military equipment and financial means,” the message says.

Threats from Russia to UN Ambassadors

Ahead of the vote, Russia's deputy ambassador Gennady Kuzmin urged MPs to vote "no" and the Kremlin said abstaining or not voting would be considered an unfriendly act and would affect bilateral relations.

“What we are seeing today is an attempt by the United States to maintain its dominance and complete control,” he said. “We reject false accusations against us based on staged and fake news.”

In informal threatening letters sent out, Russia has said that the attempt to expel it from the Human Rights Council is political and supported by countries that want to maintain their dominance and control of the world.

Kislitsa responded to Russia's claims about the trial as follows: "We have heard the same perverse logic of the aggressor trying to present himself as a victim many times."

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield has called for Russia to be stripped of its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council after videos and photos of streets in the city of Bucha littered with the corpses of civilians.

The deaths have sparked global revulsion and calls for tougher sanctions against Russia, which vehemently denies any involvement of its troops.

“We believe that the Russian military committed war crimes in Ukraine and Russia must be held accountable,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “Russian participation in the Human Rights Council is a farce.”

General Assembly spokeswoman Paulina Kubiak said that an emergency special meeting of the Assembly on Ukraine will resume when a resolution on "suspension of the right to membership in the Human Rights Council of the Russian Federation" is put to the vote.

War in Ukraine

More than 11 million people have been displaced since February 24, 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

The traces of carnage that the retreating Russian troops have left in cities, including Bucha, according to the Ukrainian authorities, have sparked outrage and led to a new wave of sanctions against Moscow.

Journalists found corpses of people in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied, in the city of Bucha, near the capital of Ukraine, after Kiev forces recaptured it from the Russian army.

The Kremlin denies that Russian troops killed civilians and claims that the pictures of the corpses in Bucha are "fakes".

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Meanwhile, Ukraine has urged its residents in the country's east to take their "last chance" to escape Russia's mounting attacks after the devastation around Kyiv shocked the world.

Six weeks after the invasion, Russian troops withdrew from Kyiv, as well as northern Ukraine, and concentrated their efforts in the southeast of the country, where desperate attempts are being made to evacuate civilians.

The retreat from Kyiv opened up evidence of the massacre, including in the town of Bucha, which Ukraine claims is evidence of Russian war crimes.

Zelensky accused Russia of interfering in an international investigation into possible war crimes, stealing bodies and trying to cover up other evidence in Bucha.

“We have information that the Russian troops have changed tactics and are trying to remove the dead people, the dead Ukrainians, from the streets and basements of the territory they occupied,” he said. “This is just an attempt to hide the evidence and nothing more.”

Switching from Ukrainian to Russian, Zelensky urged ordinary Russians to “somehow resist the Russian repressive machine” instead of “being equated with the Nazis for the rest of their lives.”

He urged the Russians to demand an end to the war "if you're even a little bit ashamed of what the Russian military is doing in Ukraine."

After Bucha, there was a chorus of voices at the highest levels of Western political power calling for accountability, prosecution, and punishment for war crimes in Ukraine.

Zelensky called the killings "genocide and war crimes" and US President Joe Biden called Putin a "war criminal" who should face trial.

But the path to bringing the Russian president and other top leaders to justice is long and difficult, international lawyers warn.

“Certainly, the discovery of bodies with execution marks, such as gunshot wounds to the head, is strong evidence of war crimes,” said Clint Williamson, who served as US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes from 2006 to 2009. “When the victims are found with their hands tied, with blindfolds and with signs of torture or sexual abuse, the case becomes even more convincing. There are no circumstances under which these acts are permitted, whether the victims are civilians or captured military personnel.”

Meanwhile, a US Department of Defense spokesman said Russia has withdrawn all of its roughly 24 or more troops from the Kiev and Chernihiv regions in the north, sending them to Belarus or Russia for resupply and reorganization.

They are expected to return to fight in the country's east, where Russia has said it intends to focus its military efforts on a new phase of invasion.

There are reports of a growing number of Vladimir Putin's troops, along with mercenaries, heading for the Donbass.

“People will come under fire,” Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk said, urging civilians to evacuate from the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial area. “And there is nothing we can do to help them.”

Ukrainian forces have been fighting Russian-backed separatists in Donbas since 2014. Before the February 24 invasion, Moscow recognized the Lugansk and Donetsk regions as independent states.

Another Western official said it could take up to a month for combat-damaged Russian forces to regroup for a major strike in eastern Ukraine.

In his address, Zelensky, among other things, warned that the Russian military was preparing for a new offensive in the east. Ukraine is also preparing for battle, he assured.

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