Ukraine won broad support on Monday to hold an urgent debate at the UN Human Rights Council on Russia’s invasion of its territory.
The military offensive decreed by Vladimir Putin marked the opening of the 49th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, in which the Ukrainian delegation will request that an investigation be opened into the alleged human rights violations by the Russian army.
The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, is scheduled to participate in the meeting on Monday and on Tuesday he will hold a press conference and deliver a speech at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
"The escalation of military operations by the Russian Federation in Ukraine entails a resurgence of human rights violations"declared the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, at the opening of the Council, with a video message.
"Throughout history, there have been moments of profound gravity that have divided events into a before and an after, very different and more dangerous. We are facing an episode of this type"highlighted the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.
The former Chilean president also said on Monday that she had knowledge of the deaths of 102 civilians, including seven children, since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, and warned that the real data was "considerably" higher.
"Most of these civilians were killed by long-range explosive weapons, especially heavy artillery fire, missile launchers and heavy artillery"he explained.
A commission similar to the one in Syria
The Ukrainian ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko indicated the balance of the Ministry of Health of her country, with more than 350 fatalities, including 16 children, and some 1,700 injured.
In the urgent debate on this conflict, the Ukrainian delegation will ask for the creation of an investigative commission, similar to the one that already exists for the war in Syria.
Ukraine, according to the draft resolution, asks UN experts to investigate human rights violations committed in Crimea and in the separatist territories of Lugansk and Donetsk since 2014, and also in the rest of the country since 2022.
Russia, which was opposed to holding this urgent debate, moved to put the proposal to a vote. Finally, it was approved with 29 votes in favor, 5 against -including China, Cuba and Venezuela, in addition to Russia- and 13 abstentions (the Council has 47 members).
The heads of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, and that of the EU, Josep Borrell, will intervene on Tuesday in the Council with their respective video messages.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will do the same on Wednesday.
"they are not credible"
Putin announced on February 24 the invasion of Ukraine, with aerial bombardments and the deployment of ground troops in various parts of the country, including an offensive against the capital Kiev.
The attack, condemned by the international community, caused some 368,000 refugees to leave the Ukrainian territory, more than half of them in the direction of Poland, according to a UN balance, communicated on Sunday.
"Let’s be clear, the Russian Federation’s attempts to legitimize its action are not credible. There was no provocation justifying such an intervention"criticized Ignazio Cassis, president of Switzerland, at the beginning of the debates in the UN Council.
