Kremlin chief Putin has claimed that the West helped Ukraine with acts of sabotage and terror. Moscow has allowed a child commissioner wanted by the ICC to speak before the UN Security Council. All developments in the live blog.
3:16 a.m
Moscow allows the ICC wanted child commissioner to speak to the UN
Russia has allowed its child rights commissioner Maria Lwova-Belowa, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged child deportation, to speak in the UN Security Council. Lvova-Belowa said the children were taken to Russia for their own safety. Moscow is working with international organizations to return them to their families.
Western ambassadors boycotted the informal meeting of the Security Council and sent low-level diplomats. Diplomats from the United States, Great Britain, Albania and Malta left the room as Lvowa-Belowa, who was connected via video, began to speak.
3:16 a.m
Putin: West helped Ukraine with acts of sabotage and terror
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Western intelligence agencies of supporting Ukraine in acts of sabotage against his country. Speaking with members of his Security Council to discuss how to tighten control over four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia in September, he called for a stronger response.
“There is reason to believe that the capabilities of third countries, of Western special services, were involved in the preparation of acts of sabotage and terrorist attacks,” Putin claimed, without supporting his claims with evidence. The four annexed regions had been shelled by Ukraine and acts of sabotage were aimed at unsettling the local population, he stated. The Russian authorities must act “harshly and effectively to ensure control of the situation.”
Several Moscow-appointed governors in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions were killed by IEDs or other attacks. Putin called for efforts to be stepped up to fully integrate the four regions into the Russian Federation and to protect the population from Ukrainian attacks, according to him.