On Wednesday, the ambassadors of the United States, Britain, Albania and Malta defiantly left the UN Security Council meeting room when Maria Lvova-Belova, commissioner for children’s rights at the of the President of the Russian Federation, issued an arrest warrant for him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, speaking to the public via video link. An informal meeting of the UN Security Council was convened at the initiative of Russia and was devoted to the issue of children taken from Ukraine to Russia, but in the Russian formulation it was called “the question of the evacuation of children from conflict zones”.
In addition, the United Kingdom and the United States blocked the broadcast of this meeting on the UN website. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that thanks to the blocking, Lvova-Belova does not have “an international platform to spread misinformation and try to defend her terrible actions taking place in Ukraine”.
In a statement from the UN mission in the UK on Twitter, he said that “if Maria Lvova-Belova wants to be held accountable for her actions, she can do so in The Hague” and that “she should not receive a platform from the UN to spread disinformation”. .”
In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting children from Ukraine to Russia and illegally transferring people to Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Moscow said the arrest warrants were legally invalid because Russia has not signed the treaty establishing the ICC.
Russia does not hide the program under which it brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, and presents it as a “humanitarian action to protect orphans and abandoned children in the war zone”.
“Russia claims to protect these children. On the contrary, it is a well-thought-out policy aimed at destroying Ukrainian identity and statehood,” British diplomat Asima Ghazi-Buillon told the audience after returning to the room after Lvova’s speech. – Belova.
Last month, Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told reporters the informal meeting had been planned long before the ICC warrants and was not intended to refute accusations against Putin and Lvova. – Belova.
UN webcasts are very rarely blocked. But last month, China blocked the webcast of an informal US-sponsored UN Security Council meeting on human rights abuses in North Korea.
Blocking the broadcast means that the video recording of the speech will also not be saved on the UN website. To carry out the broadcast, the consent of the 15 members of the Security Council is required.
On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council voted overwhelmingly to renew the mandate of the investigative body tasked with investigating possible war crimes committed since the start of the invasion. on a large scale from Ukraine by Russia.
In March, the Commission for Further Investigation, Documentation and Reporting of Human Rights Violations and International Crimes Committed against the People in Ukraine released a report stating that approximately 16,000 children had been illegally taken and expelled from Ukraine, citing data from the Ukrainian government. On March 17, Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Irina Vereshchuk issued a public appeal to Russian officials asking to provide lists of all Ukrainian orphans and all Ukrainian children whose parents were deprived of parental rights. who are currently in the occupied Ukrainian territories. or were illegally transferred to Russia The appeal was made public after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova- Belova. children so far.
