The session of the UN Human Rights Council, which opens this Monday, February 27 in Geneva, will culminate in the publication of an investigation into war crimes committed in Ukraine. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has, for its part, identified 71,586 war crimes and crimes of aggression committed by Russian forces over the past year.
On the ground, the Belarusian opposition in exile claimed on Sunday that a Russian plane had been destroyed at an airfield near Minsk. An action that she claims and describes as “the most successful sabotage operation” since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. In addition, Washington, Berlin and Warsaw are planning joint military exercises soon in Poland within the framework of NATO, in the face of the Russian threat on the Eastern front, the German Minister of Defense indicated on Sunday evening.
Russia in the crosshairs of the UN Human Rights Council
Nearly 150 senior leaders, including the heads of French, American, Chinese, Iranian and Ukrainian diplomats, will speak from Monday to Thursday – a record. Moscow is expected to send its Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Thursday. Despite calls from NGOs, it is not certain that the diplomats will leave the room at the time of his speech, as they had done last year for his leader Sergei Lavrov, who intervened by videoconference. “We can expect fairly strong speeches, some differences,” warned Swiss Ambassador Jürg Lauber.
The tone will be set today by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, with much-anticipated speeches on the war in Ukraine after the widely adopted majority of a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly demanding an “immediate” withdrawal of Russian troops. Tension will also be high at the end of the session during the vote on the continuation of the work of the investigators on Ukraine, who will present their first written report on March 20, after having already reported war crimes in September.
Ukrainian ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko pleads for a “strengthening” of the resolution defining the mandate of the investigators, but it is not sure that the final text reflects this will because Kiev and its Western allies will have to convince certain countries hesitant to criticize Moscow for not to swell the ranks of abstainers.
Russian plane destroyed at airfield in Belarus, opposition says
A successful sabotage operation? The Belarusian opposition in exile claimed on Sunday that a Russian plane was destroyed at an airfield near Minsk. “Supporters […] confirmed the success of a special operation aimed at blowing up a rare Russian aircraft at Matchulishchy airfield near Minsk,” Franak Viacorka, one of the top advisers to the figurehead of the Belarusian opposition, Svetlana Tikhanovkaya. According to Franak Viacorka, “two Belarusians carried out the operation” using drones. “They have already left the country and are safe,” he added.
He did not specify which Russian aircraft had been targeted, but said the cost of the aircraft was 330 million euros. According to media close to the opposition, it is an A-50 surveillance and command aircraft. “I am proud of all Belarusians who continue to resist the hybrid Russian occupation of Belarus and to fight for the freedom of Ukraine,” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said on Twitter.
These assertions were unverifiable from independent sources and the Russian army did not react immediately. Belarus, Moscow’s only European ally against Kiev, is not directly involved in the Russian offensive in Ukraine, but lent its territory for the initial assault a year ago. Moscow is also using Belarusian airfields to strike Ukraine, according to kyiv.
Washington increases pressure on Beijing
The United States is “convinced” that China is considering supplying arms to Russia in its war in Ukraine, even if it says no decision has been made, and is mounting pressure on Beijing, warning it not to not cross that red line. “We are convinced that the Chinese leadership is planning to supply lethal material” to Russia, CIA chief William Burns said in a rare interview with CBS broadcast on Sunday.
But, added the director of the American intelligence agency, “we have not seen that a final decision has been made” and “we have not seen evidence that they delivered” weapons to the Russia. Beijing has denied these accusations. The United States has been engaged for a week in a vast diplomatic offensive, warning China against any lethal military support for Russia, which, according to experts, would be a game-changer in this conflict. According to press reports, including those of the Wall Street Journal and the NBC channel quoting unidentified officials, it would be for China to provide drones and ammunition in particular.
Discussions on joint maneuvers USA, Germany Poland
“There are reflections” on this subject, declared Boris Pistorius to the public channel ARD, while indicating that he did not want “for the moment” to confirm them, nor to give details. The idea of such joint military maneuvers in a country bordering Ukraine, if they were to take place, would send a “very clear” signal both within the Atlantic Alliance “but also to (Vladimir) Putin,” he said. Because NATO “is far from being as weak as it believed for a long time, it is much stronger and united than last year” before the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, has argued the Minister of Defense.
In addition, the objective would be to reassure “the eastern front” of NATO, added Boris Pistorius. “For Eastern European countries like Poland, the Baltic States, Slovakia and others, it is important to see that Germany, as the most important European member of the alliance, and the United States as a transatlantic partner, sticks to its defense obligations within the organization,” he said.