Ukraine calls Russia's UNSC presidency slap in the face; 'Worst April Fools’ joke...'

As the Russian Federation assumes the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) presidency for the month of April as a part of the monthly rotation between 15 member states, Ukraine on Saturday branded it as a "slap in the face." Russia's Presidency is "world’s worst April Fool’s joke," Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a tweet on April 1.

Ukraine joined the global outrage in boycotting Russia in response to its brutal invasion of Ukraine that has stretched into the second year. Ties between the Russian Federation and the West have deteriorated to the lowest levels since the Cold War over Russia's "special military operation" in neighbouring Kyiv. UN, argues the West, is an international agency tasked to overlook the matters relating to global peace and security. That Russia will assume its presidency of the body will be ironic in their view. 

The UN Security Council presidency is assumed by different permanent members in alphabetical order. Russia takes the chair from Mozambique and will hand it to Switzerland. 

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia's UNSC tenure was "a slap in the face to the international community."

"I urge the current UNSC members to thwart any Russian attempts to abuse its presidency," he said on Twitter, calling Russia "an outlaw on the UNSC," he insisted. 

Russia chaired the UNSC last in February 2022, just before Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to launch an all-out invasion of Ukraine. Russian offensive in Kyiv sparked international condemnation and unified calls for Russia's removal from the UN council. Russia in April will be in charge of the UNSC agenda as it assumes the Presidency. “The country which systematically violates all fundamental rules of international security is presiding over a body whose only mission is to safeguard and protect international security,” Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kuleba said, reiterating the demand for Russia's removal as a permanent UNSC member. 

Ukraine seeks Russia's ouster as permanent member of UNSC 

In December, last year, Ukraine called on the member states of 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. Ukraine argues that Moscow has occupied "the seat of the U.S.S.R. in the UN Security Council" illegally since after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

"From a legal and political point of view, there can be only one conclusion: Russia is a usurper of the Soviet Union's seat on the UN Security Council," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry stressed in a statement. "Three decades of its illegal presence in the UN have been marked by wars and seizures of other countries' territories," it added. 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had noted that Moscow's veto-wielding permanent seat like the United States, Britain, France, and China was under discussion among Ukraine's diplomatic circles. UN's five permanent members of the 15-seat UN Security Council have veto power over UN resolutions. “Three decades of its illegal presence in the UN have been marked by wars and seizures of other countries’ territories,” Ukraine's Foreign Minister asserted. 

Kuleba urged Security Council members to "thwart any Russian attempts to abuse its presidency," as he labelled Russia an "outlaw."

This month, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will chair the UN Security Council meeting on "effective multilateralism," the Foreign Ministry of Russia noted in a statement. Lavrov would lead a debate on the Middle East and the US' numerous conflicts on April 25, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted at a briefing. 

"In the case of [Russia's] abuse of power via the presidency, we will certainly react," a UN Security Council diplomat, who requested anonymity was reported saying in New York. "This is not the point. The point is the war in Ukraine and making sure that we put this to an end," the diplomat furthermore stressed. 

Russia's Presidency shows UN's 'total bankruptcy': Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also derided the UN for letting Russia assume the Presidency, saying that it goes to show the institution's "total bankruptcy." Ukraine's embattled leader slammed the idea as "absurd" that Russia takes over the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council despite waging a war. Zelenskyy reminded, that just Friday, Russian shelling killed a five-month-old boy in Ukraine. 

"Unfortunately, we have some obviously absurd and destructive news," Zelenskyy said in an evening video address.

"And at the same time Russia is chairing the UN Security Council. It's hard to imagine anything that proves more the total bankruptcy of such institutions," he added.

US, Baltic states question Russia's UNSC Presidency

The United States on April 1 questioned Russia's membership of the Security Council and its status as a permanent member of the UN, referring to the aggression that its troops have wreaked in ally country Ukraine. "A country that flagrantly violates the UN Charter and invades its neighbour has no place on the UN Security Council," White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said at the briefing. 

"Unfortunately Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and no feasible international legal pathway exists to change that reality," she added. Biden's Press secretary termed Russia's chairmanship of the UNSC Presidency as "a largely ceremonial position."