The U.K. has blocked the United Nation's webcast of an informal security council meeting on Ukraine scheduled for April 5 at which Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights is due to speak, according to the Guardian.
Maria Lvova-Belova, like Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, are the subjects of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague last month, citing allegations of war crimes for the abduction and illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Such meetings are not held in the security council chamber and all 15 council members have to agree to allow it to be webcast by the United Nations. It is rare for a UN webcast to be blocked.
“She should not be afforded a UN platform to spread disinformation,” a spokesperson for Britain’s UN mission in New York said in a statement. “If she wants to give an account of her actions, she can do so in The Hague.”
Lvova-Belova reportedly said that said during a press conference on April 4 that she is ready to send children back to Ukraine "if their families request it." She said parents "could write her an email to look for the children."
Russian forces have unlawfully transferred or deported 19,514 Ukrainian children to Russia, violating the Geneva Conventions, Ukraine's Reintegration Ministry reported on March 28. To date, only 327 children have been returned to Ukraine.
Sofiya Doig
(Updated: )
