Russia assumes UN Security Council presidency despite Ukrainian anger

Despite Ukraine pleading with other council members to oppose the action, Russia has assumed the leadership of the UN Security Council. On a rotating basis, each of the 15 council members has the presidency for one month.

In February 2022, when Russia last held the president, it started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It denotes that a nation whose president is wanted internationally for alleged war crimes is in charge of the Security Council.

The arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin was issued last month by the International Criminal Court, a non-UN body.

Notwithstanding Ukraine’s complaints, the US claimed it was powerless to prevent Russia, a permanent council member, from taking the helm. The United Kingdom, United States, France, and China are the council’s other permanent members.

Vasily Nebenzia, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, informed the Russian Tass news agency that he intended to preside over numerous discussions, including one on arms control. The position is primarily procedural. He promised to talk about the “new world order” that will “replace the unipolar one.”

The Russian presidency has been dubbed “the worst April Fool’s joke ever” and a “stark warning that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning,” according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, a presidential adviser for Ukraine, criticised the decision as “another rape of international law… an entity that wages an aggressive war, violates standards of humanitarian and criminal law, tramples on the UN Charter, disregards nuclear safety, and can’t lead the world’s foremost security organisation.”

Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded that the Security Council be reformed or “dissolved entirely,” accusing it of not doing enough to stop Russia’s invasion.

He has also demanded that Russia lose its membership. Yet, the US has claimed that because the UN charter forbids the removal of a permanent member, it is unable to act.

Russia blocked a resolution meant to put a stop to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of last year (China, India and the United Arab Emirates all abstained).

It rejected a resolution in September that demanded that its unlawful annexation of four Ukrainian territories be undone. India, China, Gabon, and Brazil did not vote.

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