UNITED NATIONS, October 18. /TASS/. Two meetings on Ukraine will be held by the United Nations Security Council at Russia’s request until the end of October, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said.

"As usual at the end of a month, our Western colleagues are seeking to raise the topic of Ukraine in a bid to keep it ‘afloat’ somehow, although the majority of UN members are already interested in other topics. Western countries have requested their first meeting on humanitarian aspects of the situation in Ukraine for three in the afternoon in New York on October 21. We are responding with two ‘salvos.’ We will hold a new informal Arria—formula meeting on the Kiev regime’s crimes against civilians in Russian regions, in particular, in the Kursk Region, at 3:00 p.m. New York Time on October 25. We will provide a lot of first-hand evidence," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Apart from that, Russia’s mission has requested a meeting "on Western weapons supplies to Ukraine and their impacts on the prospects for a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis" for October 31, he added.

An Arria-formula meeting can be called by any Security Council member who can invite rapporteurs from among public figures or non-government organizations. Other nations cannot block such a meeting but can dodge participation. Such meetings are not held at the Security Council premises and yield no resolutions or official documents. Such meetings have been practiced since 1992 and received their name from Venezuelan Ambassador Diego Arria, who initiated this format.