UN Suspends Russia from Human Rights Council as Images of Atrocities Emerge: 'Major War Crimes'
Atrocities in Ukraine are turning up the international pressure on Moscow. In the latest move, the United Nations voted on Thursday to suspend Russia from its Human Rights Council. The vote was 93-24 with 58 abstentions.
The vote comes as Russian troops have left the outskirts of Kyiv for an escalating offensive in eastern Ukraine. The Russian evacuation of the area allowed Ukrainian authorities to survey the devastation, and they report the bodies of at least 410 civilians have now been discovered in towns around the capital.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the evidence indicates those civilians are victims of a Russian campaign of murder, rape, dismemberment, and torture. Some victims were shot at close range with their hands bound behind their backs.
The World Health Organization is reporting that Russian attacks on public health care in Ukraine have killed 73 people. The targets included ambulances, hospitals and clinics.
The images of devastation left by Russia's invasion are playing out across the world. Now scenes are coming out from the port city of Mariupol. Russian shelling has destroyed 90 percent of the city's infrastructure and killed at least 5,000 people.
About 160,000 people are trapped there with no electricity, communications, heat, or water. The mayor says Russian forces have turned the city into a death camp.
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But Russia is trying to raise doubts about some of the images of devastation, and on Thursday France called out the campaign. France summoned Russia's ambassador over his tweet suggesting that photos of civilians killed in the town of Bucha were staged. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called it "indecent."
Moscow has been deriding media reports showing scenes of horror in Ukraine, calling them fake. But the Associated Press and other news outlets have provided firsthand evidence to the contrary.
The U.S. is vowing to hold Russia accountable for its atrocities. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday "we have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands scattered in the streets."
President Biden is promising to increase Russia's economic pain with more sanctions. "There's nothing less happening than major war crimes," he said Wednesday. "Responsible nations have to come together to hold these perpetrators accountable."
The U.S. is also announcing that it preempted possible Russian cyberattacks on American infrastructure by removing malware from computer networks.
The U.S. believes that Russia has pulled all of its troops from the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas in the north. Ukraine President Zelenskyy is warning that Russian forces are preparing to launch fresh assaults in the East, calling on people there to evacuate.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Thursday that Russian forces have agree to 10 humanitarian corridors for civilians in three eastern regions: Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.
CBN Prayer Event for Ukraine
Prayer is urgently needed for Ukraine, and you can be a part of the effort. Go to cbn.com/prayforukraine to register for an exclusive live prayer event, happening Saturday at 10 a.m. Eastern.
Christian World News anchor Wendy Griffith will be taking part, bringing you the latest on how CBN's humanitarian team is helping victims of the war in Ukraine. Then she will lead participants in prayer.
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