He emphasized that through this form of maneuver, Russia is attempting to show that it can "continue to violate human rights with impunity, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Ukraine's position is firm: “Russia should not regain the right to return to one of the key UN bodies, unless it faces accountability for all its crimes,” said Nikolenko.
“The place for Russian war criminals is on a tribunal bench, not in the [UN] Human Rights Council.”
Earlier, BBC reported that Russia plans to rejoin the UN Human Rights Council in upcoming elections in October and is asking body members for support.
On April 7, 2022, the UN General Assembly backed a decision to expel Russia from the Human Rights Council. The resolution said that the council is "gravely concerned" about reports of gross and systematic violation of human rights and infringements of international humanitarian law committed by Russia during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.