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Russia's ambassador to the United Nations accused the UN Secretariat on Wednesday of "institutional bias" in its handling of Ukraine-related reporting, charging that the world body has effectively taken sides in the conflict and forfeited its role as a neutral mediator.
Vassily Nebenzia held a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York, demanding access to the underlying materials the Secretariat used when it leveled accusations against Moscow and questioning the legal framework applied to Russia throughout the process.
At the heart of Nebenzia's complaint is what he described as a double standard in how the Secretariat evaluates sources. He said Russia's requests to review the evidentiary basis for accusations against it had been refused on confidentiality grounds, while information from Ukrainian sources was accepted without similar scrutiny.
"Confidentiality is invoked not to protect justice, but to prevent scrutiny," he said, calling the approach "selective treatment" and "discrimination."
Russia has long contested what it characterizes as a Western-aligned tilt within UN institutions since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. Wednesday's news conference escalated that criticism into a direct challenge to the Secretariat's administrative conduct.
Nebenzia said the Secretariat's conduct has rendered it unfit to play a constructive role in ending the war, arguing that the body has "divorced itself from the possibility of being instrumental in resolving the crisis in Ukraine by taking sides basically."
He also addressed the events in Bucha, a city on the outskirts of Kyiv that became one of the most contested episodes of the conflict.
After Russian forces withdrew from the Kyiv region following peace talks in Istanbul in April 2022, Ukrainian authorities reported finding the bodies of civilians on the streets, some with their hands tied, and accused Russian forces of killing them.
Russia denied the allegations, asserting that its forces did not target civilians and suggesting the incident was staged after its retreat.
Nebenzia indicated Russia would keep pressing the issue despite expecting no response from current UN leadership, saying his country would "continue to knock on the door." He described Bucha as an episode that "unfortunately, became a watershed in the whole conflict."
The accusations reflect a deepening rift between Moscow and multilateral institutions that has intensified since the start of the full-scale invasion. Russia has repeatedly challenged the credibility of UN-affiliated bodies and reporting mechanisms it views as instruments of Western pressure.
The UN Secretariat had not issued a public response to Nebenzia's remarks at the time of the news conference.
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