US and UK leave UN meeting with Russia on war crime allegations

As Russian Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova spoke in the U.N. conference room where the discussion was taking place, the diplomats exited.
The International Criminal Court wants to detain Russia's ambassador for children's rights on allegations of war crimes, while the United States, Britain, Albania, and Malta abstained from her video address to the U.N. Security Council members on Wednesday.
Russia called an informal conference on Ukraine to discuss “evacuating children from conflict zones,” but Britain and the United States prevented the UN from broadcasting it online.
As Russian Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova spoke in the U.N. conference room where the discussion was taking place, the diplomats exited.

The webcast was blocked by the United States and Britain, according to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, so Lvova-Belova would not have “an international podium to spread disinformation and to try to defend her horrible actions that are taking place in Ukraine.”

Last month, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest order for Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and Lvova-Belova, charging them with unlawfully deporting children from Ukraine and smuggling people into Russia from Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.

Moscow claimed that because Russia did not ratify the agreement creating the ICC, the warrants were illegal.

Moscow hasn't tried to hide the existence of a programme that it has used to import hundreds of Ukrainian youngsters, but it prefers to portray it as a humanitarian effort to help orphans and abandoned children in conflict areas.

According to Lvova-Belova, almost 5 million Ukrainians—including 700,000 children—have visited Russia since February 2022.

She said that roughly 1,300 of the 2,000 children who came from orphanages with custodians had now returned to Ukraine, while 400 were currently in Russian orphanages and 358 were put in Russian foster families.

“Russia claims to be guarding these kids. Asima Ghazi-Bouillon, a British ambassador, entered the room after Lvova-Belova finished speaking and addressed the group, stating that this is actually a premeditated programme that aims to eradicate Ukrainian identity and statehood.

I want to emphasise that unlike the Ukrainian side, we don't exploit children for propaganda, Lvova-Belova remarked after showing a video of Ukrainian youngsters in Russia.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's representative to the United Nations, told reporters last month that the informal gathering had been scheduled for a long time prior to the ICC's statement and that it was not meant to refute the accusations made against Putin and Lvova-Belova.

It is uncommon for a U.N. webcast to be banned, according to diplomats. However, China last month prevented the United Nations from broadcasting an informal Security Council meeting on North Korea's human rights violations that the United States had called.