The Russian presidency of the United Nations Security Council is in full swing, despite protests within the UN system and beyond.
Last week, Russia hosted an informal meeting on the "evacuation of children from conflict zone," - a policy of forced deportations of Ukrainian minors to Russia, amounting to war crimes, according to human rights groups.
The meeting was addressed remotely by Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, who, along with Russia’s President Putin, is under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.
Unable to prevent the meeting going ahead, the UK Mission to the United Nations called for the live UN webcast to be blocked.
Then, when Ms Lvova-Belova began speaking, the representatives of Albania, Britain, Malta and the US walked out.
"She should not be afforded a UN platform to spread disinformation" a UK Mission spokesperson said in a statement.
"If she wants to give an account of her actions, she can do so in The Hague," the statement added.
Russia yesterday hosted the first of its "signature events" in the Security Council chamber, entitled: 'Threats to international peace and security: Risks stemming from violations of the agreements regulating the export of weapons and military equipment’.
Speaking to the media ahead of the meeting, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the Russian presidency, which officially began on 1 April, an "April fool's joke".
She repeated previous US government statements on their expectations for a "professional" approach by Russia to the presidency, but said that the US "stands ready" to counteract any Russian "disinformation" presented to the council.
Going through the motions, council members read statements on the proliferation of conventional weapons and the rising threat of arms falling into the hands of non-state actors, including terrorist groups.
Following council procedure, many representatives thanked the previous presidency of Mozambique and warmly congratulated Russia on assuming the chair.
"Let me wish Russia a fruitful and successful presidency," said the representative from Brazil.
But the council soon descended into finger-pointing among the world's superpowers.
"A number of states based on their own geopolitical ambitions have, over various years, carried out mass-scale transfers of arms and ammunitions to various regions of the world including the Middle East, Balkans and North Africa," said Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya.
"Western countries continue to promote the concept of responsible behaviour and strengthening control over weapons circulation.
"However the crisis that they themselves provoked in Ukraine was a clear demonstration of the insincerity of their statements," he added.
Mr Nebenzya warned of the dangerous consequences of "pumping the Kyiv regime with weapons".
Speaking directly after his Russian counterpart, the US representative, hit back.
US representative Robert Wood thanked Mozambique on an "outstanding presidency in March".
Dispensing with the niceties of welcoming the new Security Council president, he said: "Russia, on the other hand, began its presidency by trying to justify kidnapping Ukrainian children."
"Today’s meeting is a thinly veiled effort to portray Russia as a responsible actor in arms control," he continued.
"Attempting to obfuscate the reality that it launched an unjustified armed invasion of its neighbour."
China soon took the floor and once again pinned the blame on the United States for weapons proliferation.
In what appeared to be a reference to US arms sales to Taiwan, China’s Ambassador Geng Shuang accused "a certain military power" of "conniving with separatist forces" and "provoking tensions".
Russia has announced another major signature event towards the end of its month-long presidency, due to be hosted by foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
Asked if she would attend that meeting, Ms Thomas-Greenfield said the US Mission is yet to decide on its attendance.
