U.N. chief rebukes Russia at a meeting chaired by its top diplomat

It's not often that the United Nations' leader criticizes powerful member nations with permanent seats on the world body's most powerful arm. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has now done it twice in a week.

First came the United States' turn over reports that it eavesdropped on his private conversations and that of other senior U.N. officials. Guterres' spokesman Stéphane Dujarric last week called those U.S. actions "inconsistent" with the nation's obligations under international law.

Then at a U.N. Security Council session chaired by Russia's top diplomat, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on Monday, Guterres – seated right beside him – confronted Russia for waging war on Ukraine.

Guterres warned that international cooperation and development are under attack.

"We face unprecedented and interlocking crises. But the multilateral system is under greater strain than at any time since the creation of the United Nations. Tensions between major powers are at an historic high. So are the risks of conflict, through misadventure or miscalculation," said Guterres.

"Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law," he said, "is causing massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people, and adding to the global economic dislocation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic."

Russia and the United States are two of the five nations, along with China, France and the United Kingdom, that have permanent, veto-wielding seats on the 15-nation council that's supposed to maintain peace and security.

In recent years, though, it's often been deadlocked – and Russia's invasion of Ukraine has only fed longstanding complaints that its frozen-in-time power structure since World War II ended sorely needs structural reform.

Russia took command of the Security Council for April based on a monthly rotation among member nations in alphabetical order.

A message for Washington

At Monday's meeting, Lavrov led a debate on “effective multilateralism.” In attendance was Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Paul Whelan, the former U.S. Marine and corporate security director detained by Russia since late 2018.

The U.S. has said it considers Whelan to be wrongfully detained and convicted on false espionage charges. "He was held for a year and a half at Lefortovo prison, where [Wall Street Journal] journalist Evan Gershkovich is currently being held on the same charges," she told reporters ahead of the session.

"This Russian playbook is so lazy that even Evan has the same investigator, a man who harassed and interrogated my brother until Paul’s sham trial in June of 2020, when Paul was given a horrific sentence of 16 years for a crime he did not commit," said Whelan, who spoke alongside U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

European Union Ambassador Olof Skoog, flanked by U.N. ambassadors from the 27-nation bloc, told reporters ahead of the session that Russia's intent for their discussion of multilateralism betrayed international law.

"By organizing this debate, Russia is trying to portray itself as a defender of the U.N. Charter and multilateralism. Nothing can be further from the truth. It's cynical," he said. “We all know that while Russia is destroying, we are building. While they violate, we protect.”

At the session, Thomas-Greenfield along with U.K. Ambassador Barbara Woodward and Swiss Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl each condemned Russia's war on Ukraine.

Our hypocritical convenor today, Russia, invaded its neighbor, Ukraine, and struck at the heart of the U.N. Charter and all the values we hold dear," said Thomas-Greenfield. "This illegal, unprovoked, and unnecessary war runs directly counter to our most shared principles: that a war of aggression and territorial conquest is never, ever acceptable."

A month earlier, the International Criminal Court charged Russia's President Vladimir Putin and another Russian official with war crimes for taking Ukrainian children to Russia.

The last time Russia was in charge was in Feb. 2022, when it invaded its neighbor. For the council's other 10 non-permament elected members, the presidency normally comes just a couple times during their two-year terms.

Last week the United Nations raised objections to revelations of U.S. spying on Guterres and other officials that surfaced in reports on the leaked Pentagon files.

Dujarric told reporters the U.N. officially expressed its concerns to its host country, the United States, that communications of the secretary-general and other senior U.N. officials were subjected to surveillance and interference.

"We have made it clear," he said, "that such actions are inconsistent with the obligations of the United States as enumerated in the chart of the United Nations and the convention and on the privileges and immunities of the United Nations.

This story has been updated with additional details.