UN launches investigation into possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine
- The Human Rights Council vote passed overwhelmingly, despite opposition from China, which decried rising ‘politicisation and confrontation’ at the world body
- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights described the scale of ‘unlawful killings’ in areas to the north of Kyiv as ‘shocking’
The UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution on Thursday to set up an investigation into possible war crimes by Russian troops in the Kyiv area and beyond, a move that Russia said amounted to political score-settling.
Members passed by an overwhelming majority (33 for, 2 against) a resolution to order a Commission of Inquiry to investigate events in the regions around Kyiv and other areas such as Sumy that were temporarily held by Russian troops.
“The areas … which have been under Russian occupation in late February and March have experienced the most gruesome human rights violations on the European continent in decades,” Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emine Dzhaparova, told the Council.
As she spoke by video link, she held up a drawing that she said was made by an 11-year-old boy who was raped in front of his mother. “He actually lost the ability to speak after and the only way he communicates is with black lines,” she said.
Reuters was unable to verify Dzhaparova’s account of what happened to the boy. A spokesperson for Russia’s diplomatic mission did not respond to a request for comment on her account.
Russia, which has denied carrying out abuses in what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, left its seat at the Geneva-based Council empty in protest.
“Instead of discussing the true causes that led to the crisis in this country and looking for ways to resolve them, the ‘collective West’ is organising another political rout to demonise Russia,” Moscow’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, said in an emailed statement before the vote.