India, July 28 -- US diplomats walked out during a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Monday as their French counterparts were speaking, after France criticised the Trump administration's human rights record.

The walkout followed US opposition to a second four-year term for UN human rights chief Volker Turk. His reappointment on Friday received overwhelming support, including from France, while the US was among the countries that voted against it.

US deputy ambassador Dan Negrea accused France of feigning "moral outrage" and lecturing the world on human rights.

The United States has stood by France in every conflict where its "freedom has been imperiled" and tolerated its grandstanding "out of a sense of camaraderie and mutual r...