The US will try to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over mass killings in Bucha, ambassador says
- The US will try to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, its UN ambassador said Monday.
- Russia is accused of killing hundreds of civilians in the recently-retaken Kyiv suburb of Bucha.
The US will move to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council following evidence of mass killings in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, the US ambassador to the UN said.
Russian troops are accused of killing close to 300 civilians during their occupation of Bucha, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posting photos of dead bodies to Telegram Sunday and calling Russian troops "butchers."
Satellite images also showed a mass grave being dug in Bucha. Russia's foreign ministry on Sunday claimed that its troops were not to blame, alleging that images of dead civilians had been ordered by the US to damage Russia's reputation.
Speaking Monday, ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US representative to the UN, said the US would try to suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council as a result of its actions in Bucha.
"In close coordination with Ukraine, European countries and other partners at the UN, we are going to seek Russia's suspension from the UN Human Rights Council," she said.
"Russia's participation on the Human Rights Council is a farce. It hurts the credibility of the Council and the UN writ large."
Thomas-Greenfield said the UN General Assembly, which votes to approve the 47 members of the Human Rights Council every three years, must now "vote to suspend them."
The UN doesn't appear to have ever held a vote to remove a country's membership, per Insider's research.
Representatives for the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
However, a spokesperson for the UN said Monday that it would set a "dangerous precedent" to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
When asked to describe the scene in Bucha during a press conference on Sunday, Thomas-Greenfield said it was "hard to comment."