Today the Russian foreign minister hosted a second meeting as president of the Security Council, this time on the situation in the Middle East.
Russia holds the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of April.
Minister Sergey Lavrov used his platform to continue attacking the United States and allies, which Russia blames for the war in Ukraine.
"America and Europeans are using the Ukrainian topic so as to use blackmail, threats to bring countries over to their side and to distract their attention from the Middle East and other countries in the Global South," Mr Lavrov said in his opening remarks.
It followed yesterday's showdown in the Security Council when other council members including France, US and UK accused Russia of hypocrisy and the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, called Russia’s war on Ukraine a violation of the UN Charter "causing massive suffering and devastation."
As Mr Lavrov concluded his two-day visit, he held a news conference in a packed press briefing room at UN headquarters.
Asked by RTÉ News if he would apologise to the nearly 80,000 Ukrainian refugees in Ireland who have had leave their homes to escape his war, Mr Lavrov questioned whether they were all genuine refugees.
"They are not necessarily in such need," he said.
"There are reports about somebody stealing something or a wife fleeing a husband and so on, I don't want to insult anyone, but in our territory, refugees started appearing a lot earlier."
He went on to repeat previous claims of discrimination against Russian speakers in Ukraine.
"If in Ireland, the English language were to be banned, how would the British view that? It’s inconceivable. And yet in Ukraine, the Russian language can be banned. They can publicly say, go back to Russia if you align yourself with Russian culture," he added.
Ukrainian was established as the official language of Ukraine under a 2019 law, but Russian is still recognised as a minority language.
The Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, is a native Russian speaker.
RTÉ News also asked Mr Lavrov if he believed China supported Russia’s war. The question went unanswered.
Mr Lavrov was asked by reporters about the detention in Russia of American citizens Paul Whelan, who also holds Irish citizenship, and Evan Gerskovich, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal.
Employing his favoured tactic of turning the tables, Mr Lavrov said there were about 60 Russian citizens serving sentences in the US, some on "dubious" grounds, he said.
He confirmed there was a special communication channel between the US and Russia to discuss prisoner swaps but declined to give further details.
The US has accused Russia of illegally detaining the American citizens as "political bargaining chips" and "human pawns."
Mr Lavrov was also asked if the Black Sea Grain initiative – a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey on grain exports from the conflict zone, to ease worldwide food shortages – was dead.
Russia has hinted it would not continue the arrangement beyond the current expiry next month, because its demands on Russian exports had not been met.
The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, met Minister Lavrov at UN headquarters on Monday to discuss a way forward for the deal.
"We see that the Secretary-General and his colleagues have been making efforts but there have been practically no results - unless we are to view as results, the glimmer of hope," he told reporters.
Ahead of Mr Lavrov’s visit this week, Russian officials said that he would be outlining the contours of a "new world order" which would end what Russia sees as a "unipolar world" led by the United States.
As his visit wrapped up, he told reporters that the "multipolar world order," was already upon us and warned the United States and Europe not to get in the way of this "historic process."
"They are trying to intervene in this process by leveraging sanctions against the Russian Federation," he said.
"But of course, the multipolar world is objectively taking shape, and what the ultimate configuration will be, that's something I don't know at this point," he added.
