The building of the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva. File photoGENEVA, May 12.The Permanent Mission of Russia to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva called the special session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on the situation in Ukraine a «cabal» and criticized the resolution adopted as a result of it. The UNHRC on Thursday held a special session convened on the basis of official request filed by Ukraine on May 9, which was supported by 47 states. Russia refused to participate in the special session. During the session, a resolution was adopted, for which 33 countries voted, including the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Libya. China and Eritrea voted against, 12 countries abstained, including Armenia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, India and Uzbekistan. The document calls for an independent commission to investigate human rights violations in Ukraine, established earlier by the UNHRC, to investigate human rights violations in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions in late February and early March this year «in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.» 
Nebenzya asked his French colleague at the UN if he knew that he was a Ukrainian. The Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation in Geneva called the special session another «cabal», «during which a limited circle of countries known to everyone for their Russophobic position «exchanged» the same theses.» They also stated that the adopted resolution does not imply any progress on the human rights track, does not add value in finding opportunities to assist Ukrainian society in the field of human rights, and does not contribute to dialogue on the situation in Ukraine. «The only purpose of this document is even deeper to draw the UN Human Rights Council and another monitoring mechanism into the information war unleashed by the collective West against Russia — a commission of inquiry created according to Western patterns precisely in order to put pressure on our country,» the Russian permanent mission said in a statement. Earlier, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova said that Russian representatives would not participate in the special session of the UN HRC, since the arguments and explanations of the Russian side regarding the true goals of the special military operation and the real situation «on the ground» are completely ignored. She stated that the Russian delegation «will not legitimize by its presence another biased political show in the form of a planned special session.» Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, and on March 25 they completed the main tasks of the first stage — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
