Despite Ukrainian dissatisfaction Russia takes the UN Security Council presidency.
Russia has assumed the UN Security Council presidency, in defiance of Ukraine’s pleas for members to oppose the change.
The 15 members of the council alternately assume the president for one month at a time.
Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the final time it held the president.
It indicates that a nation whose president is wanted internationally for alleged war crimes is leading the Security Council.
Ukraine protested, but the US insisted it could not stop Russia—a permanent council member—from taking over as president.
China, the US, France, UK, and the US are the other permanent members of the council.
Vasily Nebenzia, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, told the Russian Tass news agency that he expected to monitor numerous debates, including one on arms control, though his role is primarily procedural.
He declared that a “new world order” that would “replace the unipolar one” would be the topic of his discussion.
Russia’s presidency, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, is “the worst joke ever for April Fool’s Day” and a “stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning”.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for the White House, stated during a news briefing this week, “Unfortunately, Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and no feasible international legal pathway exists to change that reality.”
“To continue to use its seat on the council to spread disinformation” and defend its actions in Ukraine, she continued, is what the US expects from Moscow.
Maintaining peace is the responsibility of the United Nations Security Council, an international entity.
The Security Council has permanent representation from five different countries. When the council was established, it reflected the post-war power structure that ruled the land.