The presidency of the UN Security Council, the most powerful body of the United Nations, rotates monthly. The 15 Member States alternate in alphabetical order. This month it is Russia’s turn, as usual, leaving the Ukrainian government dumbfounded.
The day before, Russian artillery killed a five-month-old child and now it is taking over the presidency of the UN Security Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Saturday. “It is difficult to imagine anything better that demonstrates the complete bankruptcy of such institutions,” he said.
Before Selenskyj, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had already criticized the change as a “bad April Fool’s joke”. Russia was last president in February 2022, when it invaded Ukraine. Referring to the blatant violations of international law, this calls for the removal of the “terror state” from the most powerful UN body. Kuleba described the Russian presidency as a “slap in the face to the international community”. He called on Security Council members to frustrate “any Russian attempt to abuse his presidency”. Russia is “an outlaw” in the UN Security Council, the Ukrainian foreign minister criticized.
US: “There is no viable legal process”
There was also verbal support from Washington. “A country that blatantly violates the UN Charter and attacks its neighbor has no place on the UN Security Council,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre recently said. “Unfortunately” Russia is a permanent member of the body and there is “no practical international legal process” to change this.
Moscow had announced in recent days that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would chair a Security Council meeting on “effective multilateralism” in April. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said Lavrov would lead a debate on the Middle East on April 25. Although the presiding country has no influence on the decisions of the body, it can set the agenda.
Source: Krone
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