Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a ceremony to receive credentials of newly appointed foreign ambassadors at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, September 20, 2022. Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet his Ukrainian and Western counterparts on Thursday, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when the United Nations Security Council meets on the atrocities committed in Ukraine.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan will brief the 15-member body, which meets during the annual gathering of world leaders for the UN General Assembly UN
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 as the Security Council met in New York to discuss Western concerns that Moscow was planning such a move. Read more
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“A crime has been committed against Ukraine and we demand a fair punishment,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the assembly on Wednesday in a recorded video. “The crime was committed against the life of our people. The crime was committed against the dignity of our women and men.” Read more
Ukraine, the United States and others have accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine. Russia denies targeting civilians during what it calls its “special military operation,” calling the allegations of human rights violations a smear campaign.
The Security Council is meeting a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russians to fight in Ukraine, annexed areas of Ukrainian territory and threatened to use nuclear weapons. Read more
The council has been unable to take any meaningful action on Ukraine because Russia is a permanent member with a veto along with the United States, France, Britain and China. Thursday’s meeting will be at least the 20th time the Security Council has met on Ukraine this year.
After the brief of Guterres and Khan, the 15 members of the council will speak, followed by Ukraine, several European countries, Belarus and the head of foreign policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell.
In July, Lavrov walked out of a meeting of the Group of 20 foreign ministers in Indonesia as he faced calls to end the war and criticism of the conflict fueling a global food crisis. Lavrov denounced the West for “frenzied criticism”.
While Russia’s seat on the UN Security Council was unlikely to be vacant during the meeting, it was unclear how long Lavrov could remain in the chamber.
Ukraine’s chief war crimes prosecutor told Reuters last month that his office is investigating nearly 26,000 cases of suspected war crimes committed since Russia’s February 24 invasion and has charged 135 people. Read more
Ukrainian officials said last week they had found hundreds of bodies, some with their hands tied behind their backs, buried in territory near the northeastern city if Izium was retaken by Russian forces, in what Zelenskiy called proof of the war crimes of the invaders.
The head of the pro-Russian administration, who left the area a week earlier, accused the Ukrainians of staging the atrocities in Izium. Read more
This week, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded 5,916 civilians killed and 8,616 wounded in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict.
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Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool
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