According to the statement of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign affairs, the Russian Federation has never gone through the legal procedure to be admitted to membership in the United Nations and therefore illegally occupies the seat of the USSR in the UN Security Council
“From a legal and political point of view, there can be only one conclusion: Russia is an usurper of the Soviet Union’s seat in the UN Security Council,” the statement reads.
In particular, the current UN Charter even does not contain the words “Russian Federation”. These words are also missing from Article 23 of the UN Charter which lists the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign affairs states.
Therefore, Russia should follow the steps defined by the UN Charter to become a UN member, in particular — pass the voting of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.
“The right of the Russian Federation to join the UN, in general, is also doubtful, as it failed to meet the main criteria for membership in the Organization. Paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the Charter clearly states that membership in the UN is open to all peace-loving states. The actions of the Russian Federation are contrary to the concept of a “peace-loving” state. Three decades of its illegal presence in the UN have been marked by wars and seizure of other countries’ territories, forceful change of internationally recognized borders, and attempts to satisfy its invasive and neo-imperial ambitions,” the statement reads.
It also mentions the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the occupation of its territories, and the crime of genocide of the Chechen people, as well as the support of the criminal regime of Bashar Assad and numerous crimes against the Syrian people. It states that the Russian Federation has been fomenting conflicts in Africa for decades and keeps destabilizing Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali, and the Central African Republic. In particular, since 1991, the Russian Federation has used its veto in the UN Security Council 31 times, almost twice as many as any other permanent member of the Security Council.
“Ukraine calls on the member states of the UN to resume the application of the UN Charter in the context of the legitimacy of the Russian Federation’s presence in the UN, to deprive the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to exclude it from the UN as a whole,” the statement concludes.
Earlier, the Ukrainian permanent representative in the UN Serhiy Kyslytsia questioned Russian membership in the UN Security Council several times in his speeches, claiming also that Russian veto blocks the Security Council’s ability to stop conflicts where it is actively involved.
