Ukraine: Mass walk-out when Russian Minister Lavrov speaks at UN Human Rights Council

#Ukraine #UN #Lavrov #Russia #UkraineRussia #Putin #Kyiv Diplomats from countries including Britain, United States and France stood up and filed out of the room when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s pre-recorded video message to the U.N. Human Rights Council began to play. During his speech, the foreign minister blamed Ukraine for the war and claimed Kyiv has been seeking to acquire nuclear weapons - a ’real danger’ that required a Russian response. But Lavrov delivered his speech to a thin crowd after dozens of diplomats staged a walk-out to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as they did at a parallel U.N. meeting in Geneva on Tuesday. They stood in a circle outside the meeting for the duration of Lavrov’s speech, holding a Ukrainian flag. Lavrov was supposed to attend the session in person but the visit was cancelled at the last minute, with Moscow blaming ’anti-Russian sanctions’ imposed by EU countries. Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday in what it called a special operation to demilitarise a