[guest post by Dana]

An accused war criminal attempted to counter what Russia claims is “disinformation” about kidnapped and forcibly deported Ukrainian children:

Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who is being sought for war crimes for deporting children from Ukraine, told a U.N. meeting Wednesday that the children were taken for their safety and Moscow is coordinating with international organizations to return them to their families.

Ambassadors from Western countries boycotted the informal U.N. Security Council meeting, sending low-level diplomats instead. Diplomats from the United States, Britain, Albania and Malta walked out when the commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, started to address the meeting by video link…U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters before the session that the United States strongly opposed the briefing and joined the United Kingdom in blocking the United Nations from outside broadcast of the meeting.

Lvova-Belova should not be allowed “to have an international podium to spread disinformation and to try to defend her horrible actions that are taking place in Ukraine,” Thomas-Greenfield said…

An Associated Press investigation, published in October, on Lvova-Belova’s involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian found the open effort to put Ukrainian children up for adoption in Russia was well underway.

Russia’s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia has also perpetuated lies about abducted Ukrainian children by claiming that there had not been any “forced adoptions” and that Ukrainian children in Russia were able to “maintain communication with their parents”. The AP corrects the record: “Russian officials deported Ukrainian children to Russia without their parents’ consent, lied to them that they weren’t wanted by their parents, used them for propaganda, and gave them Russian families and citizenship.”

Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya has said more than 19,500 children had been seized from their families or orphanages and forcibly deported. Here is a collective statement objecting to Lvova-Belova’s appearance before the Council and the continuing lies about what has happened to Ukrainian children:

Statement on behalf of: 🇦🇩🇦🇱🇦🇺🇦🇹🇧🇪🇧🇦🇧🇬🇨🇦🇭🇷🇨🇾🇨🇿🇩🇰🇪🇪🇪🇺🇫🇮🇫🇷🇩🇪🇬🇪🇬🇷🇬🇹🇭🇺🇮🇸🇮🇪🇮🇹🇯🇵🇰🇷🇱🇻🇱🇮🇱🇹🇱🇺🇲🇹🇲🇩🇲🇨🇲🇪🇳🇱🇳🇿🇲🇰🇳🇴🇵🇱🇵🇹🇷🇴🇸🇲🇸🇰🇸🇮🇪🇸🇸🇪🇨🇭🇺🇦🇬🇧🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/BmXoESoEGL

— Sergiy Kyslytsya (@SergiyKyslytsya) April 5, 2023

What makes this all the more repulsive and speaks to the shame of the United Nations, is that Russia, which called the meeting in an effort to defend lie about its abominable treatment of Ukrainian children, presides over the U.N. Security Council due to the rotating schedule. This is despite protests from Western nations who worked to try and block the assignment. In a bitter irony, the U.N. Security Council is now being led by a country whose president has had an arrest warrant issued for him by the International Criminal Courts for war crimes against Ukrainian children, and the speaker before the U.N. Security Council – who laughably bears the title “Commissioner for Children’s Rights” – has also had an arrest warrant issued for her by the ICC for war crimes against Ukrainian children. The U.N. disgraces itself by permitting Russia to preside over the Security Council, as well as by giving an accused war criminal a platform from which to spew her vile word vomit.

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Despite Gov. DeSantis having not yet made an official announcement for 2024, the Trump campaign is already capitalizing on the former president’s increasing support and $12 million indictment fundraising boon by urging DeSantis voters to jump ship:

The Trump campaign, in an email sent earlier this week to DeSantis donors and obtained by Fox News, emphasizes that “now is the time to demonstrate your support and join Team 47 early.”

“The two things the memo illustrates are the President’s huge numbers and Governor Ron DeSantis’ collapsing numbers,” the Trump campaign wrote in the memo.

Clearly, the campaign views DeSantis as Trump’s strongest opponent for the 2024 nomination. The fundraising memo says as much as it presents Trump as the “inevitable nominee,” thus DeSantis’ donors would be smart to dump DeSantis now and support the former president:

Having just completed our own survey of 1,000 likely 2024 general election voters conducted on behalf of the Donald J. Trump for President 2024 campaign and reviewing recent media polls completed before and after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of President Trump, it is very clear that President Trump has gained strong majority support from Republican primary voters against any opponent and leads incumbent President Joe Biden among likely voters.

…

Any reputable poll now shows Republican primary voters are appalled, angry and are unifying behind President Trump in his nomination. Voters and reported donations to the Trump campaign are increasing exponentially.

This is a historic attack against the Republican Party’s ability to nominate and challenge failing incumbent radical left, corrupt President Biden. Rank and file Republican primary voters and donors are rising to the challenge by rallying around our strongest candidate, President Trump.

Since February President Trump in any multicandidate field is building majority support and his potential opponents are either fading or not generating any significant support at all.

Note: Trump’s group, MAGA Inc. had $54 million on hand at the end of last year.

Not surprisingly, the DeSantis camp is already working on a long-term strategy in their still-unofficial run against Trump:

Even though it’s early and DeSantis isn’t officially a candidate yet, in talks behind the scenes, an expanded map is viewed as one of the keys to victory, three sources close to the governor said.

“There have been multiple conversations about delegates and how they are picked in various states across the country,” a DeSantis adviser said. “One thing that we have looked at is that Trump can be beat on the delegate portion of all this. He has never been good at that.”

Another DeSantis political adviser said there have been internal conversations about delegate strategy.

–Dana