UNITED NATIONS, March 24. /TASS/. Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia criticized statements about the alleged presence of Russian troops in Libya at the Wednesday session of the UN Security Council.
Earlier, UN experts delivered a report alleging that Russia violates the arms embargo on Libya, despite the fact that the Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly dismissed those allegations. Furthermore, they claimed citing "open sources" that there were Russian nationals, the mercenaries of the Wagner private military company, in the country.
"We have reiterated that there are no Russian troops in Libya, and if any of our citizens do stay in Libya, they do not represent the Russian state," he said at the UN Security Council session on Libya on Wednesday.
"By the way, we have pointed numerously to unreliability of the reports of the [UN] group of experts, who do not bother to fact-check the information ‘leaked’ to them from open sources. And it can be refuted easily, which was done by Russian journalists," the diplomat stressed.
Nebenzia advised his co-workers at the UN Security Council "to draw attention to the conclusions of the group of experts, which say that their own citizens are energetically operating in Libya."
"It is clear that some of those operations cannot be conducted without support of the governments," Nebenzia indicated. "So instead of this speculation, it would be a good idea to look in the mirror."
At the session, UK Permanent Representative to the UN Barbara Woodward denounced the presence of mercenaries in Libya, including those from the Wagner private military company, according to her words.