Watch: Mass walkout at UN against Russia; Putin's minister had to cancel flight due to EU ban

At a United Nations event, a mass walkout was staged against Russia as protest over the ongoing Ukraine war. The walkout reportedly occurred at a meeting of the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 1.

As soon as UNHRC president Federico Villegas introduced Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, and the latter started speaking, UNHRC members stood up from their seats en masse, and exited the hall.

Lavrov was forced to address the gathering virtually, as he had to cancel his visit after the European Union closed its airspace to Russian flights as penalty for the Ukraine invasion.

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While speaking at a Geneva disarmament conference, Lavrov slammed the European Union, and called sanctions imposed after the Feb 24 invasion 'illegitimate'. He said, "Having chosen the path of unilateral illegitimate sanctions, the EU countries are trying to avoid an honest face-to-face dialogue, from direct communication necessary to expedite finding political resolutions of burning international issues."

Lavrov also accused the West of trying to set up military sites in former Soviet states. "The Western countries need to abandon creating military sites on the territory of the countries previously constituting the Soviet Union and not members of the alliance, including using their infrastructure to conduct any military activity," he said.