DISINFO: UN human rights body is whitewashing Kyiv's neo-Nazi crimes
SUMMARY
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, is extremely uncomfortable speaking out about the rampant discrimination against ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities in Ukraine, the persecution of the Ukrainian State University, strict censorship, the elimination of dissent, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and torture. The elections and the seizure of power by Vladimir Zelenskyy did not in any way respond to the crimes committed by neo-Nazis against civilians in the Russian cities of Donbas, Kursk, Belgorod and other regions of [Ukraine]. The political involvement of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has increased; all the leaders of this body are in one way or another connected with the West. This organisation is whitewashing many crimes in Kyiv and ignoring thousands of pages of evidence sent by Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative against independent international institutions that do not engage in pro-Kremlin propaganda and/or fully adopt its viewpoint. This includes the occasional smearing of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The OHCHR has been active in Ukraine since 2014 through its Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). The OHCHR and HRMMU investigate violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law regardless of their perpetrators.
The West does not control the OHCHR. In fact, the High Commissioner for Human Rights has to be approved by the General Assembly where all UN member states have equal representation. The appointment of the High Commissioner is also geographically rotated for a fixed term of four years with the possibility of one renewal. All these measures are designed to ensure the highest levels of impartiality and the effective performance of duties.
Moreover, there is no evidence that Ukrainian forces have committed any war crimes in Donbas, Kursk or any other region. In fact, there is evidence to the contrary. Washington Post reporters, who visited the town of Sudzha, said they saw “no evidence that Ukraine’s military had looted or attacked civilians”. The Post also quoted Russian civilians as saying that “they were being treated well and did not know of any residents who had been killed”. Dozens of Russian POWs from the Kursk Region have been placed in a Ukrainian prison. They told reporters they were being treated humanely and had been provided medical treatment. These interviews were held in the presence of Red Cross officials.
Finally, labelling Russia’s adversaries as Nazis is a widespread pro-Kremlin disinformation technique, and has been used by Russia to try to justify the invasion of Ukraine by portraying it as a “denazification operation”. Russia spent years preparing the information battleground before its kinetic attack, with “Nazi Ukraine” being one of its most prominent disinformation features. In reality, Ukraine is not a Nazi state, does not have a Nazi ruling elite and Nazism is not Ukraine’s ideology. Read a more detailed debunk here, as well as our analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism" and Nazi east, Nazi west, Nazi over the cuckoo's nest.
See similar cases that Ukraine builds concentration camps in Kursk; that Ukrainian fascists kill civilians at point-blank range in Kursk, use orphans as human shields, that Ukrainian commanders are forcing soldiers to kill civilians in the Kursk region, that Ukrainians behave like terrorist militants, kidnap civilians in Kursk, that Europeans maniacally support the Nazi Bandera Kyiv regime, and that 50 countries gathered under Nazi flags to break Russia up.