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Russian ambassador urges United Nations to share evidence behind Bucha report, calls reply insufficient
Summary
At a United Nations press stakeout, Russia's ambassador said the UN had failed to answer 12 questions from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the Bucha findings and demanded access to the underlying materials the human rights office used to make its allegations.
The Russian ambassador told reporters at a United Nations press stakeout that Moscow has asked the UN to produce the source materials behind a human rights report on Bucha and that the organization has failed to answer 12 formal questions sent by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "The Secretary General has not responded to any of the questions we raised," the ambassador said, calling the UN reply received in June a "standard formal response" that did not provide substantive answers.
The ambassador said the UN human rights office relied in part on social‑media and national police postings that he described as "unofficial, unverified, and partly vanished online," and he argued those sources did not justify the report's "extremely grave accusations" against a member state. He said Russia has requested access to the materials so its authorities can "verify the material, assess its credibility and test its validity." Citing international law, he pointed to Section 21 of Article 5 of the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations as the basis for cooperation with member states on matters that bear on the administration of justice.
Russia said it wrote to the UN again on May 1 and received a written reply on June 8 that it regards as inadequate. The ambassador accused the human rights office of a conflict of interest, saying the same office that produced the report decided not to share its sources: "An unverified Ukrainian source is good enough for accusations against Russia. However, an official Russian request to verify that source is rejected," he said.
When pressed about next steps, the ambassador said Moscow would "keep knocking on the door" but expressed little hope the secretariat would change course. He framed the Bucha episode as a turning point that, in his view, derailed earlier prospects for agreement over the conflict in Ukraine.
The ambassador's comments were part of a wider press exchange in which he also addressed questions on the listing of the Russian armed forces in databases of alleged perpetrators, the UN secretary‑general selection process, and other geopolitical topics. The UN Secretariat did not respond at the stakeout; the ambassador said the matter remains under diplomatic follow‑up.
