MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' decision to include the Russian armed forces in the list of parties committing grave violations against children in the Ukrainian conflict has no real grounds, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said.

"The UN Secretary General, who was essentially ‘tied’ by the West, could not resist the politicized decision to include Russian military in the list of parties committing grave violations against children in the conflict in Ukraine. <...> We have demanded and continue to demand that we be provided with the facts on which this decision is based. In response, there is silence or refusal to provide information with references to some kind of confidentiality procedures. All of this convinces us that there are no real grounds," he said in the State Duma at a meeting of the parliamentary commission on investigation of the crimes committed by the Ukrainian regime against minors, timed to coincide with the World Children’s Day.

According to the envoy, it remains unclear on what criteria Guterres based his decision. "The justification for this decision was based on some data allegedly collected by the UN, according to which the Russian armed forces killed 136 children and the Ukrainian military caused the death of 80 children. The Secretary General recognized us as the violators, but not the Ukrainians. It is unclear on the basis of what quantitative criteria [this decision was based]," the diplomat added.

He pointed out that Russia does not see objectivity in the reports of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) on the Ukrainian issue. "The so-called OHCHR observation mission in Ukraine and the Independent Investigation Commission in Ukraine, established by the UN Human Rights Council under the dictation of Western countries, are completely biased structures working under the full control of Kiev and its Western masters. They produce information that cannot be trusted," Nebenzya concluded.