Dozens of countries walk out during Lavrov’s speech in Geneva

Representatives of dozens of countries protested against the Russian war in Ukraine on Tuesday by walking out of a sitting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva ahead of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s speech.

“The Human Rights Council must not be misused as a platform for disinformation,” said German ambassador Katharina Stasch, who took part in the stunt. “Foreign Minister Lavrov’s grotesque claims must be exposed for what they are: a cynical distortion of the facts.”

Lavrov, who joined proceedings by video link, read out a
long statement in which he justified the attack on Ukraine by accusing the Ukrainian side of human rights violations.

He had initially planned to attend the meeting in person, but the trip was cancelled because of the closure of European airspace to Russian aircraft.

The UN Human Rights Council began its regular spring session on Monday.

In his speech, Lavrov accused Ukraine of terrorizing the Russian minority in Ukraine for years. Their human rights had been violated in many ways, he claimed, adding that the West had not only looked on but supported this.

He mentioned the United States, Canada and the European Union several times.

Since mid-February, more than 100,000 people have fled to Russia from Ukraine’s far eastern Donbass region, where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting central government forces since 2014.

The government in Kiev wants to turn its country anti-Russia to please the West, Lavrov said, according to the UN translation of his speech.

Western countries are obsessed with sanctions, Lavrov said, describing the punitive measures as illegal as they target ordinary people.

“The West has clearly lost control of itself in its desire to vent its anger on Russia,” Lavrov said, according to the interpreter.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected attempts by Moscow to portray the attack on Ukraine as a defence of human rights and said reports of Russia’s abuses “mount by the hour.”

“Russian strikes are hitting schools, hospitals, and residential buildings. They are destroying critical infrastructure, which provides millions of people across Ukraine with drinking water, gas to keep them from freezing to death, and electricity,” he said in a video message to the council.

“Civilian buses, cars, and even ambulances have been shelled. Russia is doing this every day – across Ukraine.”

In the annexed Crimean Peninsula, he said, there are extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and torture. In Russia itself, anti-corruption activists and opponents of the government are persecuted, he noted.