(CNSNews.com) – Launching Russia’s month-long presidency of the U.N. Security Council, Moscow’s U.N. ambassador said on Monday he would not relinquish the chair when Ukraine is on the agenda, arguing that other countries that are “directly involved” in the conflict have not done so when they held the rotating presidency.

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia shrugged off criticism over the fact Russia is presiding over the U.N.’s top body while carrying out what is widely viewed as a war of aggression against its neighbor.

“Some countries are pretending they can decide in their own will who they want or do not want to be in the chair of the presidency of the Security Council,” he told reporters in New York. “As long as the current world order with the U.N. and the Security Council stands, there will be no change in the rules of procedure.”

Those “rules of procedure” state that the council presidency rotates each calendar month between members, in the English alphabetical order of their names. Russia is up for April.

Just two rules further down, however, is one stating that the president should hand the chair temporarily to the next country on the list when considering a question with which his or her country is “directly connected.” The rule leaves it to the president to decide if this is required, for “the proper fulfillment of the responsibilities of the presidency.”

A reporter asked Nebenzia whether he intends to follow that rule when the Ukraine crisis is on the agenda, and temporarily hand the gavel to the next country in line for the presidency, Switzerland.

“No,” Nebenzia declared. “No.”

He said if that was to be the case then other counties on the council – the United States, Britain, and France – should also “withdraw from the discussion” since they are “directly involved” in the Ukraine situation.

Nebenzia recalled that in 2003, Britain and the U.S. held the council presidency in the months of September and October respectively. No-one questioned their legitimacy to hold the presidency or said they should withdraw from discussing the most pressing topic of the time, he said, alluding to the Iraq war.

Outlining the presidency’s program for the month, Nebenzia said Russia would host an informal meeting on Wednesday on the subject of “evacuating children from conflict zones.”

“We want to dispel some misgivings and propaganda over that issue that has been waged by certain countries,” he said, in reference to the controversy over the removal of Ukrainian children to Russia

In February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally determined that Russian troops and officials have committed “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine, citing the deportation of “hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, including children who have been forcibly separated from their families.”

A month later, International Criminal Court (ICC) judges issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and his government’s children’s rights commissioner, accused of deporting children from occupied parts of Ukraine to Russia – a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

Nebenzia on Monday called the ICC warrant for Putin a “stupid” and “illegitimate” decision that means “zero, nothing to us.”

Earlier in the day, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters the U.S. expects Russia to “behave professionally” during its presidency, “but we also expect that they will use their seat to spread disinformation and to promote their own agenda as it relates to Ukraine, and we will stand ready to call them out at every single moment that they attempt to do that.”

Asked about the prediction that Russia would use its presidency to “spread disinformation,” Nebenzia said the true situation was “just the opposite.”

“One of the [instances of] disinformation that the Western media and Western officials are spreading is the situation of Ukrainian children who were allegedly kidnapped from Ukraine and brought to Russia against their will.”

Wednesday’s meeting on the topic, he said, “is intended to dispel this narrative.”

A recent Yale University School of Public Health study found that Russia has transferred at least 6,000, and probably many more, Ukrainian children to dozens of identified facilities in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea, for pro-Russian political reeducation and in some case adoption by Russian nationals.

‘Bone in the throat’

Nebenzia said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would visit New York later in the month, and chair over two Security Council meetings, a “signature event” on April 24 and a Middle East debate the following day.

The signature event, he said, would be a “discussion on the formation of a new multipolar world order, based on sovereign equality, equal rights and self-determination, justice and security, friendly relations and cooperation between nations.”

In a combative weekend statement on his Telegram channel, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the U.N. Dmitry Polyanskiy said that Russia’s assumption of the council presidency has “put to shame” its enemies and critics, “for whom such a prospect was like a bone in the throat.”

“The U.N. still has international law and rules of procedure developed over decades, and not the ‘rules-based order’ with which the collective West is trying to replace international law.”

He called Russian taking up of the council gavel “an eloquent confirmation of this.”

See also:
‘Bad Joke’: Russia Assumes Presidency of UN Security Council on April Fool’s Day (Mar. 31, 2023)