UN Human Rights Council Initiates Inquiry Into Russian Atrocities In Ukraine

The resolution that was brought by Ukraine earlier on Thursday was supported by more than 50 countries, reported Reuters. A report will follow on the same by early next year. 

New Delhi: The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday voted in favour of launching an inquiry into alleged serious violations committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, reported news agency AFP. 

The Council voted 33-2 in favour of a draft resolution tabled by Ukraine to launch a probe into alleged violations in various regions of Ukraine such as Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy in late February and in March this year, “with a view to holding those responsible to account.” 

The resolution that was brought by Ukraine earlier on Thursday was supported by more than 50 countries, reported Reuters. A report will follow on the same by early next year. 

"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," Emine Dzhaparova, Ukraine's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, told the council.

While Russia denies Ukraines’s claims, a spokesman for the Russian mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to the possibility of a war crime investigation. Moscow has been calling its action in Ukraine since February 24 as a “special military operation”. 

Following allegations of violations in Ukraine, the 47-member UNHRC had suspended Russia last month, although Moscow says that it had quit the Council. 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in the same session said that the possibility of war crimes in Ukraine cannot be ruled out as there were many examples saying that 1,000 bodies have been recovered so far from the Kyiv region. 

"The scale of unlawful killings, including indicia of summary executions in areas to the north of Kyiv, is shocking," she said, quoted by Reuters.