(Ottawa) Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday morning. A few hours earlier, negotiations between Russia and Ukraine had started in Belarus.
Posted at 9:07
“We call on Russia to stop this attack immediately,” she said in a speech at the 49and regular session of the Human Rights Council.
She said the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin makes the protection of human rights even more urgent and called on her government not only to respect those of Ukrainians, but also those of Russians who demonstrate against the war.
The first talks since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 had begun hours earlier. The Ukrainian government demands an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory.
These talks are taking place as Russia’s offensive comes up against resistance from the Ukrainian army and as sanctions of an unprecedented scale, adopted by the West, are shaking its economy.
With Agence France-Presse