Russia’s UN ambassador on Monday dismissed EU and US descriptions of its presidency of the Security Council this month as an April Fool’s joke and announced a meeting to be chaired by Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov on defending the principles of the UN Charter, which Moscow is widely accused of breaking by invading Ukraine.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield earlier on Monday told reporters that the US expects the Russians to be professional, but would use their presiding seat “to spread disinformation and promote their own agenda as it relates to Ukraine, and we will stand ready to call them out at every single moment that they attempt to do that.”
She and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell called Russia’s takeover of the council presidency an April Fool’s joke.
Photo: AFP
Under Security Council rules, the presidency rotates monthly in alphabetical order among its 15 members.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told reporters that there would be no change in the rules of the council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security.
Russia has been “an honest broker” during past council presidencies, a role “which we value and cherish, and we are always trying to maintain it,” he said.
The council president presides over meetings and decides the topics of key sessions, often presided over by foreign ministers and sometimes presidents. Lavrov on April 24 is to preside over a session on “effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the UN Charter.”
There are also required monthly meetings, including on the Middle East, which Lavrov is to preside over, Syria and other global hot spots, including Mali, Libya, Yemen, Haiti, the African Great Lakes region and Colombia.
Nebenzia responded to the US ambassador’s expectation that Russia would spread disinformation about Ukraine by calling it “a Western narrative,” adding that “we think just the opposite.”
Russia plans to hold an informal council meeting today on what Moscow claims is disinformation being spread by Western officials and media about the Ukrainian children taken to Russia, he said.
The aim of the meeting is “to dispel this narrative” that they were abducted, he added.
The issue was put in the spotlight when the International Criminal Court last month issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his country’s commissioner for children’s rights, accusing them of war crimes for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children to Russia. Moscow called the warrants “outrageous” and “legally void.”
An Associated Press investigation first published in October found that the open effort to put Ukrainian children up for adoption in Russia was well under way. Ukrainian officials at the time said that nearly 8,000 children had been deported to Russia, but the exact number was difficult to pin down.
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