Russian official sought by ICC for war crimes speaks at UN
Maria Lvova-Belova will be the keynote speaker at an informal Security Council meeting on Ukrainian children taken to Russia.
Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, wanted for war crimes, will address a controversial United Nations meeting that Russia has convened to counter what it says is disinformation about Ukrainian children taken to Russia.
Russia’s UN mission confirmed on Tuesday that Maria Lvova-Belova will be the keynote speaker, via video link, at an informal Security Council meeting that has sparked backlash from Ukraine’s supporters.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) last month issued arrest warrants against her and President Vladimir Putin for their suspected involvement in the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
The United Kingdom said it has blocked external broadcasting of the meeting in protest and will not send an ambassador. The US mission said it will not send an ambassador either.
“The fact that they are inviting someone who has been charged by the ICC speaks for itself,” said UK Deputy Ambassador James Kariuki.
Later, the British mission added in a statement: “If it wants to be accountable for its actions, it can do so in The Hague”, the Dutch city where the ICC is headquartered.
The Associated Press reported on Lvova-Belova’s involvement in the October kidnapping of Ukrainian orphans, in the first investigation following the kidnapping process as far as Russia, based on dozens of interviews and documents.
It found that the open effort to give Ukrainian children up for adoption in Russia was well underway. Ukrainian officials at the time claimed that nearly 8,000 children had been deported to Russia, but the exact number was difficult to determine.
When it announced the orders on March 17, the ICC claimed that Putin and Lvova-Belova were responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
Their chances of a trial are slim, as Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the ICC action “legally void” and “outrageous and unacceptable” at the time.
‘Unfounded and illogical’
Other speakers expected to address the informal Security Council meeting include the adviser on humanitarian programs in Lvova-Belova’s office and the commissioners for human rights and children’s rights in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is partly occupied by Russia.
Russia’s UN mission said Wednesday’s meeting is aimed at providing “objective information” about children in conflict areas in eastern Donbas, including Donetsk, and Russian measures to evacuate them from danger.
The mission alleged that Western media and some delegations misrepresented the evacuations as “kidnapping”, “forced displacement” and “adoption” and said Russia was trying to destroy their Ukrainian identities.
“Such a position is not only baseless and illogical, it is also inhumane, as it almost calls for the abandonment of orphans or unkempt children in the midst of hostilities,” the mission statement said.
Polish UN ambassador Krzysztof Szczerski, whose country is a close ally of Ukraine, told reporters it is not appropriate to let Lvova-Belova brief the council.
“We have to take the ICC’s arrest warrants seriously,” he said. “So it’s definitely not the person to describe the cruelty and horror of the children being kidnapped and forcibly taken to Russia.”
On Tuesday, Lvova-Belova told a press conference in Moscow that she was willing to return deported children to Ukraine if their families asked.
As of March 29, 16 children from nine families have been reunited with their relatives living in Ukraine or elsewhere, according to a report from her agency. However, she refused to publish a full list of Ukrainian children taken to Russia.