Permanent representative of Ukraine to the UN explains why Russia's Security Council presidency was not blocked
Photo ukrinform.ua
If the UN Security Council members had blocked Russia's chairmanship of this body in April, it would have stopped the work of the Security Council altogether, according to the permanent representative of Ukraine at the UN, Serhii Kyslytsia.
He stated this in an interview with Ukrinform.
"If Russia had been blocked from the chairmanship under the current conditions, it would have obviously led to blocking the work of the UN Security Council in general. Are the members of the Security Council ready to essentially stop its work? Not ready," he said.
According to Kyslytsia, the members of the Security Council, particularly the permanent ones, did not raise the question of how Russia's actions could be combined with its stay in the Security Council as a permanent member. "Before Ukraine, even previous victims of Russian aggression did not raise this issue so acutely," he noted.
On the one hand, the Security Council is "helpless and ineffective" regarding aggression against Ukraine. On the other hand, it has almost fifty issues on its agenda, explained the deputy representative. "That is, only the Ukrainian issue, which is one of the most systemic, cannot be resolved in any way in the UN Security Council today," he noted.
However, he believes the Security Council can act quite effectively on other issues. "Discussions take place here; decisions are made on issues that are vital for some countries and groups of countries. In particular, we are talking about at least twelve mandates for peacekeeping operations and fourteen sanctions regimes introduced by the Security Council, including non-proliferation. They are regularly reviewed, and decisions are made regarding them," Kyslytsia said.
He noted that Russia agreed to some decisions, introducing sanctions regimes and some mandates even though it "didn't want to." Such decisions do not correspond to its interests, for example, regarding the sanctions regime against Iran. "Which both Iran and Russia, by the way, are actively violating," he added.
Otherwise, the presence of Russia in the Security Council would be utterly inappropriate from the point of view of almost all countries, the Ukrainian representative believes.
As for the right of veto, to which the Russian Federation resorts, its deprivation and the adoption of the decision of the Security Council on the immediate termination of the war would not mean that Putin will fulfill it.
"For over two decades, the world allowed and forgave Putin almost everything. It was an indulgence in his plans to create an autocracy that absolutely does not care about any decisions of regional and global organizations," Kyslytsia noted.
For reference:
As reported, Russia held the presidency in April over the UN Security Council. The chairmanship of this body alternates between its members every month. Switzerland will play this role in May, and the UAE in June.
The Security Council consists of five permanent members of the UN – the United States, Great Britain, France, China, and Russia (in place of the Soviet Union), who have the right to veto, as well as ten member countries on a rotating basis.
