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A funeral service employee looks at the bodies of civilians collected from the streets of Bucha at a local cemetery.
A funeral service employee looks at the bodies of civilians collected from the streets of Bucha at a local cemetery.

The UN General Assembly has voted to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council over reports of "gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights" by invading Russian troops in Ukraine.

The resolution received 93 votes in favor, 24 against, and 58 abstentions.

The U.S.-initiated resolution adopted by the 193-member General Assembly expressed "grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed his gratitude to the UN members who voted in favor of suspending Russia from the Geneva-based 47-member council, which is the UN’s leading human rights organization.

The rebuke marked only the second time a country has been dismissed from the council, which was founded in 2006. Libya's suspension in 2011 was the first.

The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the suspension, calling the move "illegal and politically motivated, aimed at ostentatiously punishing a sovereign UN member state that pursues an independent domestic and foreign policy."

But U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the vote.

"A country that is perpetrating gross and systematic violations of human rights should not sit on a body whose job it is to protect those rights," he said.

Russia was in its second year of a three-year term on the council, whose decisions are not legally binding but send important political messages. It also can authorize investigations.

The suspension bars Moscow's delegation from speaking and voting at council meetings, but its diplomats can still attend debates.

The world has been outraged by images from the Ukrainian town of Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian troops showing bodies of civilians who appear to have been executed and left in the streets or buried in mass graves.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier this week called for the expulsion of Russia from the UN Security Council "so it cannot block decisions about its own aggression."

Ukraine’s UN ambassador, Serhiy Kyslytsya, said Russia had committed “horrific human rights violations and abuses that would be equated to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

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He called Russia’s actions in Ukraine “beyond the pale” and said Moscow “is not only committing human rights violations, it is shaking the underpinnings of international peace and security.”

Deputy Russian Ambassador to the UN Gennady Kuzmin had urged members to vote no.

“What we’re seeing today is an attempt by the United States to maintain its dominant position and total control,” he said prior to the vote. “We reject the untruthful allegations against us, based on staged events and widely circulated fakes.”

Kyslytsya responded to Russia’s complaints about the proceeding, saying: “We have heard, many times the same perverted logic of the aggressor trying to present itself as the victim.”

He also cautioned members of the General Assembly against abstaining, quoting Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel: “Indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.”

Among the 24 countries that voted against the resolution was China, a Moscow ally that has steadfastly abstained from criticizing the invasion of Ukraine. Others were Iran, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Belarus, and Syria.

Several African countries, including South Africa and Senegal, joined Brazil, Mexico, and India in abstaining.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa
A photo of Muratov posted by the newspaper on Telegram showed his head, shirt, hands, and arms covered in red paint.
A photo of Muratov posted by the newspaper on Telegram showed his head, shirt, hands, and arms covered in red paint.

Dmitry Muratov, the editor in chief of one of Russia's leading independent newspapers, Novaya gazeta, said he was attacked by an assailant who threw a mixture of red paint and acetone on him.

Muratov, co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, was on a train bound from Moscow to Samara on April 7 when the attack occurred.

A photo of Muratov posted by the newspaper on Telegram showed his head, shirt, hands, and arms covered in red paint.

Muratov said the attacker shouted, "Muratov, here's to you for our boys."

He told the new European edition of Novaya gazeta about the attack, saying that his eyes were burning badly.

Novaya gazeta, a leading independent Russian newspaper, suspended operations last month after it said it received warnings from Russian authorities.

The newspaper said it had been warned twice by Roskomnadzor, meaning the state communications regulator was open to pursue closing the independent outlet down through legal action.

Earlier on April 7, journalists from Novaya gazeta who fled Russia amid the ongoing crackdown on independent reporting said they have launched a new media outlet that aims to cover news and developments in Russia and around the world in Russian and several other languages.

Kirill Martynov, the former editor of Novaya gazeta's unit on political issues, will be the editor in chief of Novaya gazeta Europe, the publication said in a statement on its website.

"We know that we have readers around the world who are waiting for verified information," the statement said.

"That is why we, Novaya gazeta journalists who were forced to leave their country because of a de facto occupational ban being in put into effect, are pleased to announce that we have launched Novaya gazeta Europe -- an outlet that shares our values and standards."

The statement did not say where the newspaper would be based.

Russia has placed strict limits on how media can describe the war Moscow launched in Ukraine. According to the regulator, media must follow official government communications only for what Moscow calls a “special military operation.” Usage of the words "war" or "invasion" with regard to the fighting in Ukraine is banned.

In early March, President Vladimir Putin signed into a law legislation that punishes those who distribute what is deemed "false information about the Russian Army" in their reports about Ukraine, with a prison sentence of as much as 15 years.

Several other Russian media outlets have already opted for suspending operations rather than face heavy restrictions on what they can report, and the Kremlin has also blocked multiple foreign news outlets, including RFE/RL.

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"Watchdog" is a blog with a singular mission -- to monitor the latest developments concerning human rights, civil society, and press freedom. We'll pay particular attention to reports concerning countries in RFE/RL's broadcast region.

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