Britain blocked the Internet broadcast of an informal meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine on Wednesday, at which the Russian commissioner for the rights of the child, whom the International Criminal Court wants to arrest for war crimes, was to speak, Reuters reported.

Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, accused by the ICC of war crimesPhoto: Mykhailo Metzel / AFP / Profimedia

The meeting will focus on the “evacuation of children from conflict zones,” and Russia said Tuesday that Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova will attend virtually.

Such meetings do not take place in the Security Council Chamber, and all 15 members of the Council must agree to have them broadcast on the Internet by the United Nations.

Last month, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting children from Ukraine and illegally moving people to Russia from Ukraine after Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.

“He must not be allowed to spread misinformation on the UN platform,” said a spokesman for Britain’s UN mission in New York. “If he wants to answer for his actions, he can do it in The Hague.”

Moscow does not hide the program of transporting thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but presents it as a humanitarian action to protect orphans and abandoned children in the war zone.

“From now on, Russia will block broadcasts at the UN of all such meetings, citing the ‘British censorship article,'” Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmytro Polyansky wrote on Twitter.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasyl Nebenzia, told reporters last month that Wednesday’s informal meeting of Security Council members was planned long before the ICC was announced and was not intended as a response to the allegations against Putin and Lviv-Belova.

Diplomats said the UN’s online broadcast is rarely blocked. However, last month China blocked the internet broadcast of an informal Security Council meeting called by the US on North Korea’s human rights abuses.

  • Maria Lvova-Belova rejects the accusations of the ISS as false: “The use of the formula “illegal deportation of children” causes horror”