Arria-formula Meeting on Ukraine
Tomorrow (2 April), Russia will convene an Arria-formula meeting on Ukraine titled “Disinformation and Sabotage of Peace in Ukraine”. The briefers had not been confirmed at the time of writing.
The meeting will begin at 3 pm EST and take place in the ECOSOC Chamber. The meeting, which is expected to be broadcast on UNTV, will also be open to representatives of all UN member states and permanent observers, UN entities, civil society organisations, and the press.
The concept note circulated by Russia for the meeting alleges that Ukraine and the European Union (EU) have used disinformation in order to “derail peace efforts”. It says that the meeting is intended to revisit the events that took place in the Ukrainian city of Bucha nearly three years ago, which the concept note describes as a fabricated “provocation” that was “used as a pretext to undermine any future dialogue” with Russia. According to the concept note, another objective of the meeting is to provide Council members with what it describes as “first-hand information on the crimes of the Kyiv regime committed in the Kursk region”.
Background
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine, advancing on multiple fronts, including from Belarus. Russian forces quickly moved towards Kyiv, occupying the city of Bucha on 27 February. Following weeks of heavy fighting and stalled advances, Russian troops began withdrawing from the Kyiv region in late March. While Moscow framed the retreat as a goodwill gesture in support of peace talks, Ukrainian and Western officials attributed it to military setbacks and a strategic shift towards securing the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
After the withdrawal, reports emerged of grave abuses allegedly committed by Russian forces in areas they had controlled, including indiscriminate killings, torture, and conflict-related sexual violence. Ukrainian authorities and several international media outlets shared evidence (including of mass graves) and local testimonies of the indiscriminate killing and torture of civilians.
On 6 August 2024, Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian officials characterised the operation as a strategic effort to create a buffer zone to protect its border regions from ongoing Russian attacks, particularly in the north-eastern Sumy region, and to pressure Moscow into entering “a fair negotiation process”. Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that the offensive was intended to improve Kyiv’s negotiations position in possible future peace talks and to disrupt the progress of Russian forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which remains the focal point of the most intense fighting. At a 28 August 2024 Council briefing on Ukraine, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas Miroslav Jenča noted that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) could not verify reports of civilian casualties or related harm resulting from the Kursk offensive, as it did not have access to Russia and the areas affected by the fighting.
Tomorrow’s Arria-formula Meeting
Council members are expected to present sharply diverging views on numerous aspects of the conflict in Ukraine. Several members are likely to dismiss the meeting as a platform for Russian propaganda and misinformation, referencing extensive documentation by independent investigative bodies of international humanitarian law violations by Russian forces, including atrocities committed in Bucha.
In a report dated 18 October 2022, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Ukraine identified a pattern of summary executions in areas previously under Russian control, including Bucha, Irpin, and other locations across the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions. According to the report, victims were often last seen in the custody of Russian forces and were later discovered with their hands bound and bearing signs of torture. The COI concluded that these acts amounted to violations of the right to life and constituted war crimes. Similar finding were presented in a 7 December 2022 report of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), covering the period from 24 February to 31 October 2022. The report found that during the early weeks of the invasion, Russian forces summarily executed or carried out attacks on individuals, leading to the death of hundreds of civilians, and noted that such acts may constitute the war crime of wilful killing.
As it has done in the past, Russia is likely to categorically deny all allegations of wrongdoing by its forces in Ukraine, asserting that the reported atrocities were fabricated by Kyiv and its allies as part of a broader disinformation campaign aimed at garnering Western military support for Ukraine and obstructing the peace negotiations held in Istanbul, Türkiye, in March 2022. Ukraine and its allies have rejected Russia’s claims as disinformation. In an 8 April 2022 statement, issued during the administration of former US president Joe Biden, Washington accused Russia of orchestrating a disinformation campaign intended to deflect responsibility for atrocities committed in Ukraine. The statement asserted that the international community would not be misled by what it described as the Kremlin’s “propaganda ecosystem”.
Russia is also expected to reiterate its allegations of crimes committed by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region. On 24 January, Russia convened an Arria-formula meeting titled “Beyond the Battlefield: Atrocities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Against Civilians”, during which Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia (Russia) presented material reportedly collected by the “International Public Tribunal for the Crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis”, an entity established by Russia’s Civic Chamber in March 2022. (For more information, see our 23 January What’s in Blue story.)
Some Council members may also raise concerns that the meeting could serve to deflect accountability and distort public discourse around ongoing efforts to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire and a broader peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine. In early March, US President Donald Trump proposed a temporary ceasefire, which Kyiv accepted. On 13 March, Putin expressed conditional support for the idea, describing it as “correct” in principle but insisting on assurances that Ukraine would neither rearm nor mobilise during the ceasefire, and that Western military assistance would be suspended. Ultimately, on 25 March, both sides agreed to a limited ceasefire in the Black Sea and a moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure. (For more information, see our 25 March What’s in Blue story.) Despite this arrangement, Russia and Ukraine have reportedly accused each other of violating the moratorium.
Some Council members, including several European states, may claim that Russia is attempting to portray Ukraine and its European allies as obstacles to peace while continuing military operations aimed at achieving territorial gains. These members are likely to emphasise that genuine engagement in peace efforts must be demonstrated through tangible actions to halt hostilities, rather than rhetorical appeals. In a joint declaration issued on 31 March, the foreign ministers of several European countries, including France and the UK, as well as the EU, asserted that Russia “must now show it is serious about ending its war”, urging Moscow to “stop its delaying tactics” and agree “without delay, as Ukraine has done, to an immediate unconditional ceasefire on equal terms and [to] implement it fully”.
Some members are also expected to underscore the importance of ensuring accountability for alleged crimes committed during the war in Ukraine. At the Bucha Summit—a gathering of national parliaments from European countries held on 31 March to mark the third anniversary of Ukraine’s recapture of Bucha—several delegations reiterated calls for the establishment of a ”Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine”. Earlier today (1 April), the European Parliament held a debate that discussed the imperative of holding Russia accountable for alleged war crimes.
