Over a 100 diplomats walk out during speech by Russia’s FM Sergei Lavrov at UN
Mar 2, 2022: More than 100 diplomats from about 40 countries walked out of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s speech at the UN in Geneva against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Only a handful of diplomats remained in the room on Tuesday due to a boycott by ambassadors from the European Union, the United States, Britain, Japan and other countries.
Those remaining at the Human Rights Council meeting included Russia’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, who is a former deputy to Lavrov. Envoys from Syria, China, and Venezuela also stayed.
Ukrainian Ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko, who led the walkout, thanked those who took part in the demonstration.
Lavrov was addressing the Human Rights Council from afar after canceling his visit due to the closure of European airspace for Russian planes. In his speech, the Russian Foreign Minister accused Ukraine of human rights violations against the Russian minority by justifying his country’s attack on Ukraine.
He also accused the European Union of being involved in a “russophobic frenzy” by providing Ukraine with deadly weapons during a military operation in Moscow that began last Thursday. Moscow has described the attack as a “special military operation” aimed at ousting Ukraine’s ruling “neo-Nazis”.
French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said “any invasion constitutes a violation of human rights” and “it is important that the Human Rights Council shows with this walkout that it is united with Ukraine and with the people of Ukraine”. While German ambassador Katharina Stasch said, “Foreign Minister Lavrov’s grotesque claims must be exposed for what they are: a cynical distortion of the facts.”
The walkout came less than an hour after diplomats all but emptied a nearby room at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva when Lavrov’s video speech aired to the Conference on Disarmament, a body created in the aftermath of the Cold War to stem the arms race.
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