UN Human Rights Council votes for urgent debate on Russia's attack on Ukraine

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – UN Human Rights Council voted Monday to have an urgent debate on Russia's attack on Ukraine.

The debate was proposed by Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, which was rejected by Moscow’s UN representative Gennady Gatilov.

A vote was called and adopted with 29 votes in favor, five against it and 13 abstentions. No date has been set for the meeting yet.

“Russia, a member of this council, perpetrated an unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine. It was an attack not only on Ukraine, it was an attack on every UN member state, on the United Nations, and on the principles that this organization was created to defend,” said Filipenko.

Gatilov, for his part, said: “Before us, we have nothing other than the usual attempt to distract the attention of the international community away from what they have been doing for nearly eight years now, which is a targeted destruction of completely innocent people in Donetsk and Luhansk.”