UNITED NATIONS — The monthly-revolving Chairmanship of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was taken-up today by the Russian Federation. Russian in its planned rotation. The United Nations Security Council agreed to a rotation ‘Presidency” during its inaugural meeting on 17 January 1946 by adopting Provisional Rule 18, “… the presidency rotates monthly among the eleven members of the Security Council,“. The UNSC has grown since 1946 no it is comprised of 5-permanent members; China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States as well as 10-non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by a voted of the General Assembly (with end of term year.
Russia has been waging a cruel and illegal war against Ukraine since 2014 and has attempted to annex parts of Ukraine contrary to its international obligations and the UN Charter. Russia then launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and stands accused of multitudes of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Additionally, the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin is a fugitive-from-justice as the International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued a warrant for his arrest as well as one of his senior deputies. The UN has sanctioned Russia multiple times for its illegal warfare as have the EU and other nations.
Russia has before taken-up the Presidency of the UNSC while breaching international law including their illegal invasion of Georgia and occupation of parts of the country as well as territory in Moldova. The war in Syria has also brought Russia’s brutality and flouting of international law into sharp focus with accusations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and the use of banned chemical weapons in addition to thermobaric weapons, commonly known as an aerosol bomb, a vacuum bomb, or a fuel air explosive (FAE), is a type of explosive that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion. Russia has also used these weapons in Ukraine.
Only last week Putin announced that for the first-time since the Cold War ended the Russian Federation would deploy nuclear weapons on foreign soil. Belarus has agreed to be host to what the Kremlin is calling a “tactical nuclear deployment”. Belarus is largely considered a vassal state of Russia as it relies on Russian aid and loans to remain functioning following Alexander Lukashenko having “stolen” the Presidential election from Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
According to Ukraine’s Permanent Member of the United Nation Sergiy Kyslysta, “As of 1 April, they’re taking the level of absurdity to a new level. The security council as it is designed is immobilised and incapable to address the issues of their primary responsibility, that is prevention of conflicts and then dealing with conflicts.” In an exclusive interview on “In Conversation This Week” with Diplomacy Ireland – The European Diplomat just prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 Kysysta raised the lack of legitimacy of the Russian Federation’s seat on the UNSC as the United Nations had never voted to give a Permanent Seat to the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The legal basis for Russia’s usurpation of the Soviet Union seat is dubious, at best.
According to other members of the UNSC they expect a show of solidarity with Ukraine to consist of downgrading of personnel assigned to attend UNSC scheduled activities except where issues of vital national interests arise.
