Russia on Tuesday failed to regain its seat on the UN Human Rights Council, from which it was expelled after the invasion of Ukraine, despite receiving 83 votes from the 193 UN member states, AFP reports.

On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly renewed 15 of the 47 members of the Council in Geneva for the period 2024-2026.

States are divided into major regions, and each regional group typically pre-selects its own candidates, who are then easily approved by the General Assembly.

But this year, two groups had more candidates than seats: Latin America (Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Peru, candidates for 3 seats) and Eastern Europe (Albania, Bulgaria and Russia for 2 seats).

A few days after the Russian attack on the Ukrainian village of Groza, where 52 people died, all eyes were on the Russian candidate.

With some Western concern about the secret ballot in a fractured world where many developing countries dispute aid to Ukraine.

In the end, Bulgaria and Albania were chosen, receiving 160 and 123 votes respectively. Russia received 83 votes.

The UN member states have sent a strong signal to the Russian authorities: a government responsible for countless war crimes and crimes against humanity has no business with the Human Rights Council,” commented Louis Charbonneau of Human Rights Watch.

In recent days, human rights activists and Western diplomats have warned against re-elections in Russia.

The General Assembly “must make an important choice to prove that it is not ready to confuse an arsonist with a firefighter,” Albanian UN Ambassador Ferit Hoxha said Monday during a Security Council meeting on the Groza massacre.

“Those who attack their neighbors, who kill innocent people, who deliberately destroy civilian infrastructure, ports and grain silos, who deport children and are proud of it, who use torture and sexual violence as weapons, who shamelessly violate international human rights laws, they have no business in the Human Rights Council,” he attacked.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recently published a report stating that over the past six months, Russia has killed an average of six civilians per day in Ukraine.