Venezuelan diplomat Diego Arria, the initiator of the Arria-formula meetings at the UN Security Council, condemned Russia for using this format to spread lies and justify aggression against Ukraine.
“I felt so bad today because after all, it has my name. That's something that has proven to be so valuable for the international community, could be misused by the Russian mission,” Arria told Ukrinform, commenting on the meeting at the UN Security Council, which Russia held to once again spread disinformation about the situation in Donbas.
According to him, the format was originally created “to open the Security Council for the defense of human rights and freedom all over the world. It was to include members of government or institutions that were being mistreated or vandalized by regimes.”
“It was never, never intended to be used by criminal estate regime like Putin’s,” the diplomat stressed, noting that Moscow uses this format to justify aggression against a peaceful governing country.
“They are transmitting to the world the falsehoods. And they have created falsely to deny the crimes they are committing in Ukraine,” Arria explained.
He underscored that “in a fairer world, it will be unthinkable to have a country like Russia as a member of the UN Security Council.”
“I've never been able to forget that when Russia presided over the Security Council in February last year, Putin invaded Ukraine. That was a very strong message to the world: he couldn't care less for the charter of the United Nations, could not care less for the world's opinion. That's actually the public position that Putin has today,” the diplomat said.
The Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN told an Ukrinform correspondent that our country condemns Russia's attempts to justify its armed aggression and to whitewash crimes on Ukrainian soil by spreading disinformation and fakes at the Arria-formula meeting.
“We regret that Arria-formula format… has been instrumentalized today by Russia for its propaganda purposes. It is another example of deliberate misuse of the Security Council’s toolbox by the country that illegitimately occupies the permanent seat of the Soviet Union,” the Mission said.
The Ukrainian diplomats noted that Russia deliberately undermined the negotiation process and blocked all peaceful initiatives of Ukraine and its partners within the Normandy format and the Trilateral Contact Group in 2014-2021. Numerous ceasefire violations against the Ukrainian forces in Donbas were regularly registered by the OSCE SMM.
Friday's Arria-formula meeting was a Russian attempt to shift the focus from its missile terror against the civilian population of Ukraine and the country’s critical infrastructure, the Permanent Mission believes.
On Friday, Russia initiated an Arria-formula meeting of the UN Security Council to once again spread disinformation about the situation in Donbas.
Such meetings are informal, they can be organized by any UN Security Council member to exchange views with the involvement of various people. The format is named after the diplomat Diego Arria, who initiated such meetings in 1992 as the Ambassador of Venezuela, then a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Photo: facebook.com/Arria.Diego
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