\n Ukraine's ambassador and diplomats from a wide number of countries staged a walkout on Tuesday as Russia's foreign minister addressed the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.\n<\/p>\n
\n The diplomats stood up and left the room when Sergei Lavrov's pre-recorded video message began to play, in protest at Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, according to an AFP journalist in the room.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ukrainian Ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko was among the numerous diplomats who filed out as the video began playing, leaving the room almost empty.\n<\/p>\n
\n Outside they gathered in front of a Ukrainian flag and broke into strong applause that could be heard in the chamber where Lavrov's speech continued, with only a handful of ambassadors from countries including Yemen, Syria, Venezuela and Tunisia remaining to hear him.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It is important to show a gesture of solidarity with our Ukrainian friends,\" said French ambassador Yann Hwang.\n<\/p>\n
\n Russia's top diplomat had been scheduled to go to Geneva to address both the UN-linked disarmament body and the UN Human Rights Council in person Tuesday, but cancelled at the last minute, with Moscow blaming \"anti-Russian sanctions\" imposed by EU countries.\n<\/p>\n
\n Russia has become an international pariah since launching a full-scale invasion six days ago.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Russian indiscriminate attacks on civilian and critical infrastructure are war crimes and violations of the Rome Statute,\" Ukraine's foreign minister told the disarmament meeting before Lavrov spoke.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Russian aggression is a global threat,\" he warned, insisting that \"the response too must be global.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n In his speech, Lavrov blamed Kyiv for the crisis, warning it was trying to assemble nuclear weapons.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I can assure you, Russia as a responsible member of the international community... is taking all necessary measures to prevent the emergence of nuclear weapons and related technologies in Ukraine,\" he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukraine's ambassador and diplomats from a wide number of countries staged a walkout on Tuesday as Russia's foreign minister addressed the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The diplomats stood up and left the room when Sergei Lavrov's pre-recorded video message began to play, in protest at Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, according to an AFP journalist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-88087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n