[lir-wg] IPv6 assignments to RIPE itself

Hello, RIPE uses addresses which are unassigned:

host -t aaaa ns.ripe.net. ns.ripe.net IPv6 address 2001:610:240:0:193::193

whois 2001:610:240:0:193::193 inet6num: 2001:0610:0240::/42 netname: RIPE-NCC-IPv6 descr: RIPE NCC status: ALLOCATED-BY-LIR

In my understanding, this is not an allowed usage sice RIPE must assign a /48 to themselves before the use the address space. However, I rose this issue with them, and they claim there is not need for this. Could someone please explain to me where my understanding of the allocation and assignment rules is flawed? Thank you, Robert