Geneva, Switzerland
Reuters
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, two 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.
Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, is pictured on a screen during her video address to the Human Rights Council special session on human rights situation in Ukraine, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on 12th May. PICTURE: Reuters/Denis Balibouse.
“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.
Five-month pregnant Maria Zimareva, whose husband is a member of the National Guard injured during combat inside the besieged Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, attends a protest to demand a rescue operation outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, on 12th May. PICTURE: Reuters/Carlos Barria
‘SAVE AZOVSTAL!’ RELATIVES OF UKRAINIAN FIGHTERS IN STEEL PLANT PLEAD FOR HELP
Relatives and supporters of the Ukrainian fighters holed up in the Azovstal steel plant demonstrated in Kyiv on Thursday, pleading for them to be rescued.
Russian forces have been bombarding the Azovstal steelworks in the southern port of Mariupol, the last bastion of Ukrainian defenders in a city now almost completely controlled by Russia after more than two months of a siege.
Many of the civilians holed up at the plant have been evacuated but no deal has been reached with Moscow on allowing out hundreds of fighters, some of whom are wounded.
Demonstrators, mostly women, marched through central Kyiv, holding banners and chanting, “Save defenders of Mariupol, save Azovstal,” “Glory to the heroes of Mariupol,” and, “Save the military of Azovstal.”
Maria Zimareva, whose relative is among the Azov battalion fighters, said tearfully, “I want all the defenders who are there to return home so that they can continue a normal life with their children and relatives.”
People holed up in the steelworks were dying of wounds that could normally be treated, said Tetiana Pogorlova.
“Nobody attempts to save them. There is nothing we can do except for gathering at such demonstrations and making demands on our authorities.”
Mariupol resident Alina Nesterenko was also at the demonstration in the capital. “The conditions they are in are horrible,” she said. “I have no words to describe them. That’s why we are here. We are begging, we are pleading in every possible way, we are asking for our loved ones to be saved.”
– ABDEL HADI RAMAHI and ANNA DABROWSKA/Reuters
“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 demonize Russia,” Moscow’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, said in an emailed statement before the vote.
In a shift from its former position of abstaining on Ukraine, China voted against the decision alongside Eritrea.
“We have noted that in recent years the politicization and confrontation at the [council]…has been on the rise which has severely impacted the credibility, impartiality and the solidarity,” said ambassador Chen Xu.
Russia says it went into Ukraine on 24th February to disarm the country and rid it of what the Kremlin calls anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
Russia was suspended from the 47-member council last month over allegations of violations in Ukraine, although Moscow says it quit.
At the same session on Thursday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said there were many examples of possible war crimes since the Russian invasion, saying that 1,000 bodies had been recovered so far in the Kyiv region.
“The scale of unlawful killings, including indicia of summary executions in areas to the north of Kyiv, is shocking,” she said.
The Kremlin has said images of dead bodies on the streets of towns such as Bucha were staged to discredit its forces.
The resolution also requests Bachelet to provide an update at the Council’s June session on violations in the Russian-besieged port city of Mariupol. Protesters outside the building formed a ‘SAVE MARIUPOL’ sign in the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag.
