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The UN denied a report that it asked staff to avoid referring to the conflict in Ukraine as a war or invasion.

The Irish Times obtained an email from the director of the United Nations Regional Information Centre that instructed staff to use conflict or military offensive.

The director said that the Ukrainian flag should not be added to personal or official social media accounts.

The UN staff have a responsibility to be impartial, according to the message.

There is a serious possibility of reputational risk that has been flagged by senior officials.

No official communication has gone out to global staff to refrain from using certain words, according to the U.N.'s under secretary general for global communications.

I lead @UN communications. No such official communication has gone out to global staff to refrain from using certain words. https://t.co/RVOZakUqH1

— Melissa Fleming 🇺🇳 (@MelissaFleming) March 8, 2022

The U.N. spokesman said it was not the case that staff had been told not to use words like war.

He said the email did not signify an official policy and that a senior official used the phrase "Russia's invasion" on Monday.

All I can tell you is that there was no email sent to staff from NY. He told the Irish Times that the email can't be considered an official policy.

The email raised concerns over its similarity to Russia's language policy around the war, and Russian officials prefer to call it a special military operation.

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