Russia ‘isolated’ at the UN
The Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from its seat on the Human Rights Council over the invasion of Ukraine.
Of the 193 member countries of the General Assembly, 24 voted against this suspension – the second in the history of the United Nations after the ousting of Libya in 2011 – and 58 abstained.
The Human Rights Council is the main UN forum for promoting this area. In addition to promoting human rights, its mission is to regularly review their situation in UN member countries.
According to Washington, the suspension of Russia from the Council which sits in Geneva is much more than symbolic and increases the “isolation” of Moscow on the international scene.
Change of direction
Vladimir Putin has “given up” taking kyiv to focus on the separatist areas of Donbass, senior US military officials said Thursday.
“Putin thought he could very quickly take over Ukraine, very quickly take over the capital. He was wrong,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during a congressional hearing.
“I think Putin has given up on his efforts to capture the capital and is now focusing on the south and east of the country,” he added before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
But the outcome of the war, which promises to be long, remains uncertain, indicated for his part the American Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley.
A first Russian assessment in Mariupol
The pro-Russian authorities have estimated the civilian losses in Mariupol at around 5,000 people and the housing destroyed at “60-70%” in this city which they have been besieging for weeks with the Russian army.
Proclaimed the city’s “new mayor” only on Wednesday by pro-Russian forces in Mariupol, Konstantin Ivashchenko delivered his assessment to the Russian state agency TASS on Thursday, admitting that the takeover of this strategic port city “would take time ” .
He also estimated that 250,000 people had left the city but that at least as many, possibly 300,000, remained behind. Instead, Ukraine estimates that 100,000 people are still there, where the humanitarian situation is catastrophic.
Nobel Peace Prize attacked in Russia
Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, Nobel Peace Prize 2021 and editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazetaannounced that he was attacked on Thursday by an unknown person who sprayed him with a red product on a train.
“They poured oil paint with acetone into the compartment. My eyes burn terribly. On the train from Moscow to Samara. The departure has already been delayed by 30 minutes. I will try to wash myself,” Muratov told the newspaper’s Telegram channel.
Novaya Gazeta announced at the end of March that it was suspending its publications online and in paper format in Russia until the end of the intervention in Ukraine, in full hardening of the Kremlin against dissonant voices.
With Agence France-Presse