Ukraine initiates Russia’s exclusion from United Nations

26.12.2022 16:00

Ukrinform

Ukraine initiates a complex process in order to deprive Russia of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to exclude it from the United Nations as a whole.

The relevant statement was issued by the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“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 reads.

According to the ministry, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 left unresolved the issue of international rights and obligations of the USSR.

“From the point of view of international law, the issue of the status of a UN member state and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which the Russian Federation enjoys, remains unsettled,” the ministry noted.

Russia falsely considers the issue settled, referring to the fact that since December 24, 1991, and publicly – since December 31, 1991, a country name plate for the Russian Federation appeared in the UN Security Council.

“In fact, according to the UN Charter, there has never been legitimate grounds for this. The Russian Federation took over the seat of a permanent member of the UN Security Council bypassing the procedures defined by the UN Charter. This happened on the basis of an ordinary letter from the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, addressed to the UN Secretary General, which was sent on December 24, 31 years ago,” the ministry explained.

The legitimate procedure for the state called “Russian Federation” to become a member of the UN and take a seat among the permanent members of the Security Council was supposed to follow the steps defined by the UN Charter.

“In December 1991, the appeal of the Russian Federation regarding the intention to continue the membership of the USSR in the UN had to be properly considered by the Security Council and the General Assembly in accordance with Article 4 of the UN Charter. It provides that the admission of peace-loving states to membership in the United Nations is effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council, and only in this way. […]Therefore, the Russian Federation has never gone through the legal procedure to be admitted to membership 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 ministry stressed.

Ukrainian diplomats insist that, guided by the principle of equality of UN members, the Russian Federation should follow the same international legal path for admission to membership in the Organization as other countries did.

“At the same time, the return of the Russian Federation to the UN in the future can be considered only if it complies with the criteria for UN membership. Compliance with the procedure defined by the UN Charter will restore the right of each member state to vote in the UN General Assembly whether to admit the Russian Federation to the United Nations or not — a statutory right they were deprived of 31 years ago. Only after Russia fulfills the conditions for membership in the Organization, contained in paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the UN Charter, could Russia be admitted to membership by a decision of the UN General Assembly upon the recommendation of the UN Security Council, as provided for in paragraph 2 of Article 4 of the UN Charter,” the ministry emphasized.

Hence, Ukraine initiates a complex process aimed at achieving the goals of this statement, and in this context is ready to cooperate with other countries to jointly protect the UN Charter and international law from the destructive influence of the Russian Federation.

“We assume that the removal of the Russian Federation from the UN Security Council will not have retroactive effect on the previously adopted decisions of this organ and will not entail the annulment or revision of the resolutions of the Security Council adopted so far,” Ukrainian diplomats concluded.

A reminder that President of the European Council Charles Michel advocates the development of a mechanism that would lead to having Russia’s membership in the UN Security Council suspended over its aggression against Ukraine.