Lavrov: UN officials act as 'mouthpieces for fake news' on Russia due to West's pressure

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov lambasted international officials, including the UN executives Antonio Guterres and Michelle Bachelet, accusing them of acting as mouthpieces for fake news. On Thursday the Kremlin official appeared in an exclusive BBC interview wherein he was quizzed on Russian brutalities in Yahinde, Chernihiv region. Notably, the question was based on a United Nations report which revealed that at least 300 residents were forced by invaders to stay in basements without water and other basic amenities. 

Responding to the same, Lavrov said, “International officials, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and, to my great regret, the UN Secretary-General and many other UN representatives, are subjected to pressure from the West and often act as mouthpieces for fake news," Lavrov said.

The BBC journalist had quoted to Lavrov an official United Nations (UN) report about the Ukrainian village of Yahidne, in the Chernihiv region, which states that "360 residents, including 74 children and five persons with disabilities, were forced by Russian armed forces to stay for 28 days in the basement of a school… There were no toilet facilities, water…10 older people died". 

In the same interview, Lavrov also parroted Kremlin’s line that Ukraine houses Nazis. Even before launching the military assault, President Vladimir Putin had justified it as his attempt to “denazify” Ukraine. Interestingly., Lavrov himself had triggered a controversy, earlier in the war,  by saying that Adolf Hitler had ”Jewish blood.”

'Russia is not squeaky clean' 

While the Kremlin official accused UN officials of spreading misinformation, he himself admitted that the Russian Federation was not “squeaky clean”.  In the sit-down interview, the Kremlin lawmaker categorically denied Russia ‘invading’ Ukraine and instead, he stressed that Moscow “declared a special military  because we had absolutely no other way of explaining to the West that dragging Ukraine into NATO was a criminal act."

“Russia is not squeaky clean. Russia is what it is. And we are not ashamed of showing who we are,” the Russian Foreign Minister told the media outlet," the Russia official said on Thursday. It has been 114 days since the war started. 

(Image: AP)