Ukraine

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council over reports of "gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights" by invading Russian troops in Ukraine.

The Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized countries has condemned "in the strongest terms" what it calls the "atrocities" committed by Russia in the town of Bucha and other areas of Ukraine.

In an impassioned address to the Security Council that evoked the ashen destruction wrought during the Second World War, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday described in stark detail what he said was the deliberate slaughter of civilians in Bucha by Russian forces, laying out an existential choice for its members, over the whole future of the world’s security architecture, founded in 1945.

UN chief António Guterres on Tuesday added his voice to the growing international calls for a war crimes investigation into the killing of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

NATO has activated chemical and nuclear "defense elements" to protect member states. Leaders of the Western military alliance have also demanded that China withhold support for Russia.

A Russian-drafted call for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine that does not mention Moscow’s role in the crisis failed at the UN Security Council on Wednesday (23 March), with only Russia and China voting yes and the remaining 13 members abstaining.

With the war in Ukraine raging, and no sign of an exit in view, a Polish peacekeeping proposal is unlikely to gather steam. But it is not too early for policymakers to start thinking about what tasks a future peace operation might undertake.

On 16 March 2022, the International Court of Justice, which has its seat in The Hague, satisfied Ukraine's request, demanding form Russia's to stop war of aggression against Ukraine. This order is binding under international law.

By a vote of 13 to two, with Vice-President Kirill Gevorgian of Russia and Judge Xue Hanqin of China dissenting, the ICJ ruled that Russia “shall immediately suspend the military operations that it commenced on 24 February.”

In an unprecedented step, the Council of Europe has expelled Russia from the pan-European human rights body in response to its invasion of Ukraine.