Russia’s UN council presidency is most contentious in memory

UNITED NATIONS — First the Russians gave the U.N. spotlight to the commissioner of children’s rights accused with President Vladimir Putin of war crimes for deporting Ukrainian children to Russia, sparking a walkout by the U.S. and several others. The U.S. envoy promised to “use every opportunity to push back on their using their perch in the chair to spread disinformation, and to use their chair to push support of their efforts.” At the incoming president’s traditional first-day news conference, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia pushed back against the April Fool’s comments, asking Borrell, “Who’s talking?” He said Russia had been “an honest broker” when chairing the council in the past and would try to maintain that approach. “If Russia is not trying to hide a systematic program to force Russian citizenship upon Ukraine’s children, then it should give humanitarian organizations full access,” Ngoyi said. When Albania’s political coordinator, Arian Spasse, took the floor, he said the Security Council found itself in “unchartered waters” this month: “A country that has brutally violated the Charter of the United Nations and the very basic rules that govern relations among states is presiding over the body responsible for peace and security.” Without naming Russia, he said the permanent council member “has done everything to undermine peace and security and has endangered the world.” France’s deputy political coordinator, Alexandre Olmedo, told the council it is well documented that Russia uses combat drones from Iran and has purchased missiles and ammunition from North Korea. The U.S. deputy ambassador, Robert Wood, said Russia began its presidency “by trying to justify kidnapping Ukrainian children” and had moved on to making “a thinly veiled effort to portray Russia as a responsible actor on arms control, attempting to obfuscate the reality that it launched an unjustified armed invasion of its neighbor.” “The most effective and obvious path towards peace and reducing risk of illicit diversion of arms would be for Russia to end the war that it started and withdraw its forces from all of Ukraine’s sovereign territory,” Wood said.