Cuban-American Senators ask for Russia to be removed from the Human Rights Council

Cuban-American Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez asked the U.S. representation at the United Nations this week to remove Russia from the Human Rights Council.

Jim Risch, Mitt Romney, Brian Schatz, Rob Portman, Jeanne Shaheen, Tim Kaine, Cory Booker, Chris Coons, Ben Cardin, and Chris Van Hollen, joined Rubio, R-Florida, and Menendez, D-New Jersey, by signing the letter, according to a press release posted on Rubio's official website.

"In February, Russia launched a massive military invasion of the free and sovereign nation of Ukraine, resulting in thousands of casualties, including children, pregnant women, health care workers, journalists, and many others," the politicians wrote.

"We implore you to submit a resolution to the UN General Assembly calling for the immediate removal of the Russian Federation from the Council," they asked U.S. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield.

Rubio is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Menendez is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, giving him an important role in U.S. foreign policy.

However, Russia announced on Tuesday that it would "sharply reduce" its military operations in Ukraine to "boost mutual confidence" in peace negotiations, reported the BBC. On Wednesday, Russian bombs hit civilian targets on the outskirts of Kyiv and in Chernihiv, another besieged city in northern Ukraine.

A North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) estimate puts Russian casualties during the first offensive at between 7,000 and 15,000.

On Monday, the pro-Russia news outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper put the number of Russian soldiers killed during the first four weeks of the war in Ukraine at 9,861, in addition to 16,153 wounded.

A few minutes after its publication, the information was modified on the newspaper's web page: the article was maintained, but the number of dead and wounded was eliminated. The media attributed the dissemination of these data to hackers.

Russian troops are suffering their most savage onslaught since World War II, with more than 1,000 casualties per day between wounded and dead, according to European Union sources quoted by the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.

The last Kremlin report on the number of soldiers killed in the conflict was made public on March 2, when the Russian Executive claimed that there were 498 casualties.