Despite Ukraine’s pleas, Russia has assumed the chair of the United Nations Security Council.
On a rolling basis, each of the council’s 15 members assumes the chair for one month.
Russia began a full-scale attack on Ukraine during its last administration, in February 2022.
It implies that the Security Council is being headed by a country whose ruler is wanted on international charges of war crimes.
The order for Vladimir Putin was issued last month by the International Criminal Court, which is not a UN entity.
Despite Ukraine’s protests, the US stated that it could not prevent Russia, a regular member of the UN Security Council, from taking the chair.
The other regular members of the council are the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and China.
Moscow’s envoy to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, told the Russian Tass news agency that he intended to supervise several discussions, including one on weapons control.
He stated that he would address a “new world order” that would “replace the unipolar one.”
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, dubbed Russia’s presidency “the worst April Fool’s joke ever” and a “stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning.”
Mykhaylo Podolyak, Ukraine’s presidential advisor, called the action “another rape of international law… an entity that wages an aggressive war, violates humanitarian and criminal law norms, destroys the UN Charter, ignores nuclear safety, and cannot lead the world’s key security body.”
Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the Security Council to change or “dissolve entirely,” charging it with failing to take sufficient action to halt Russia’s incursion.
He has also asked for Russia’s membership to be revoked.
However, the US has stated that its hands are bound because UN law does not permit the withdrawal of a regular member.
“Unfortunately, Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council, and there is no feasible international legal pathway to change that reality,” White House press assistant Karine Jean-Pierre said this week at a news conference.
She went on to say that the US expects Moscow to “continue to use its seat on the council to spread disinformation” in order to defend its actions in Ukraine.
The United Nations Security Council is an intergovernmental organisation tasked with preserving order.
The Security Council is composed of five regular members. They represent the postwar political system in place at the time the committee was established.
Members of this body collaborate with ten non-permanent member nations.
Because Russia is a regular part of the Security Council, it has the ability to reject decisions.
A Security Council decision must be approved by nine ballots in favour, with none of the five regular members voting against.
Russia rejected a measure meant to terminate Russia’s incursion of Ukraine in February of last year. (China, India and the United Arab Emirates all abstained).
It rejected a motion in September asking for the revocation of its unlawful seizure of four Ukrainian areas. Brazil, China, Gabon, and India all voted no.
