Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at a meeting with Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Moscow, April 4, 2022

Mr Griffiths,

Colleagues,

We are delighted to welcome you to the Russian Federation. This visit is crucial for the continuation of UN humanitarian activities.

Today, the international community is focusing on the situation in and around Ukraine. Quite some time ago, we established contacts with your Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. We can see how this interaction helps resolve humanitarian problems, above all those facing people in eastern Ukraine as well as in other parts of the country. We believe that it is necessary to provide humanitarian aid to all people who find themselves in a difficult situation. We are actively doing this for the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics.

We cooperate with international partners, including the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, in order to organise humanitarian convoys to Ukrainian cities such as Sumy, Kharkov and Mariupol. Unfortunately, attempts continue to politicise humanitarian issues and even to speculate on them. Two weeks ago, attempts were made to present the situation in a Mariupol maternity ward as a crime by the Russian military. It later turned out that the purpose of these efforts was openly provocative, and that fake materials had been submitted. They were later debunked.

 Another information attack took place the other day in the town of Bucha in the Kiev Region soon after Russian service personnel left the vicinity under specific plans and agreements. A “show” was staged there several days later, and Ukrainian representatives and their Western patrons are broadcasting it on all channels and social media networks. All Russian service personnel left the town on March 30, 2022. On March 31, 2022, the mayor of Bucha made an official statement that everything was all right there. Two days later, we saw the “show,” organised on the town’s streets, and they are now trying to use it for anti-Russia purposes.

We have requested an urgent UN Security Council meeting on this issue. We believe that such provocations directly threaten international peace and security. The United Kingdom that presides in the UN Security Council this month has so far failed to confirm whether the meeting can take place. We will demand that the presidency fulfil its functions.

I hope that today we will discuss the practical issues that have to be resolved with you here today and at the Russian Defence Ministry. We will be ready to examine our interaction in such serious humanitarian situations as Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen. I hope to discuss all subjects of mutual interest.