UN Chief, UNICEF Avoid References About Ukraine Site Targeting Children - Russian Diplomat

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have avoided references in public and did not change their behavior toward the neo-Nazi Ukrainian website Mirotvorets targeting children, among others, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said.

The Russian mission to the United Nations has sent letters to UNICEF about the case of Faina Savenkova, 13, whose private information was placed on the Mirotvorets website because she warned against killing children in the Donbas region.

"The Secretary General carefully avoided references to this issue in public. As for UNICEF, it promised to hold a meeting between the relevant specialist of the Fund and Faina," Polyanskiy said via Twitter on Wednesday.

Polianskiy said despite the fact that the meeting did not take place - UNICEF representatives only notified Faina that a specialist is not able to meet her because of personal reasons - the agency nevertheless claimed it had duly addressed this situation and met Faina.

"This deception and sham was easily exposed but UNICEF changed nothing in its behavior," he said.

The Russian mission immediately shared the relevant information with Guterres and UNICEF but received no reaction from the UN chief and his office or from UNICEF headed by Executive Director Catherine Russel, Polyanskiy said.

In July, the Russian mission has previously submitted a letter to Guterres' office on the fact that 327 children have been listed on the Mirotvorets website as enemies of Ukraine. In addition, senior Russian diplomats met with the UNCEF chief in August and appealed to her that an investigation be undertaken.

The Mirotvorets website continues to function despite the please of the Russian government to take action against it and the requests by several governments of UN member states to shut it down.