The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine issued a statement calling for the exclusion of Russia from the United Nations.

In addition, Kyiv accuses the Russian Federation of taking the place of a permanent member of the Security Council after the collapse of the USSR, allegedly bypassing the UN Charter.

“Ukraine calls on the UN member states to renew the application of the UN Charter in matters of the legitimacy of the stay of the Russian Federation in the UN, deprive the Russian Federation of the status of a permanent member of the UN Security Council and exclude it from the UN as a whole,” the statement says.

Recently, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has already announced that Kyiv intends to raise this topic.

“The question is very simple: does Russia have the right to remain a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to be in the United Nations in general?

We have a convincing and reasoned answer: no, it doesn’t,” Ukrainian media quoted him as saying.

And on December 20, Kuleba announced that Ukraine intends to launch a "political process" that should lead to the deprivation of Russia of its "illegal" seat in the UN Security Council.

Idea fix 

Recall that the Ukrainian authorities have been calling for Russia to be excluded from the UN Security Council and the organization itself throughout the year.

So, on March 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this.

In early April, he again voiced this position in his speech to the Security Council, in which he proposed that the council exclude the Russian Federation from the composition or dissolve itself.

“Now we need decisions from the UN Security Council aimed at restoring peace in Ukraine.

If you do not know how to make such a decision, then you can do two things: exclude Russia ... and reform the security system or, if there is no other option and alternative, you should all dissolve yourself, ”he said.

  • Video message of Volodymyr Zelensky to the UN

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Spencer Platt

Zelensky once again raised this issue at the end of June, again speaking on video before the UN Security Council.

“I call for depriving the Russian delegation of the possibility of manipulating the UN.

It is necessary to make it impossible for the Russian Federation to be on the UN Security Council, ”RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.

In early December, the Verkhovna Rada supported a resolution calling for UN reform and the "illegitimacy" of Russia's participation in the organization.

The explanatory note to the document stated that the UN cannot fully fulfill its duties due to Russia's veto power.

It is worth noting that official representatives of Western countries have repeatedly stated that the exclusion of the Russian Federation from among the permanent members of the UN Security Council is not possible.

In particular, this was stated on December 15 by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

“If there was some way to suspend Russia's membership in the UN Security Council, we would immediately use it.

Unfortunately, there is no prospect of changing the UN rules,” Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing.

“Therefore, we have focused on continuing to take measures to isolate Russia, including in international organizations, as well as to hold Russia accountable, including through sanctions and enforcement measures.”

Unreal plan

Russia has also repeatedly noted that any ideas and proposals for the possible exclusion of the country from the permanent membership of the UN Security Council are unrealizable from the point of view of law.

Thus, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova explained in September that Russia could be deprived of the status of a permanent member of the Security Council only through a change in the UN Charter.

This requires that two-thirds of the members of the UN General Assembly vote for the change, after which the decision must be ratified by two-thirds of the member countries of the organization, including all permanent members of the Security Council.

“There is simply no other legal way to implement such a plan,” said Maria Zakharova.

  • Building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia

  • globallookpress.com

  • © Konstantin Kokoshkin

In turn, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin commented on such initiatives in October.

“The question of depriving Russia of its membership in the Security Council, almost in the General Assembly, such ideas, like other little thought out, if not false, are put forward, in particular, by the Ukrainian side.

This is simply unrealistic,” the diplomat said.

Radical steps

MGIMO professor Elena Ponomareva, in an interview with RT, noted that Ukraine, as well as individual Western politicians, putting forward proposals to exclude Russia from the UN Security Council, want to achieve the complete exclusion of Russia from the system of international relations.

“Statements about the need to exclude Russia from the UN Security Council demonstrate the desire of certain players to reform the entire system of international relations.

In this new system, these players do not see Russia, and they are trying to neutralize it on all international platforms.

However, this will entail very serious consequences, because it is impossible to exclude Russia just like that, without loss to world security, ”the political scientist noted.

The presence of the Russian Federation in the UN Security Council, as well as its right of veto, is a guarantee of stability and security in the world, Ponomareva stressed.

“Therefore, all these conversations, of course, need to be stopped - you need to emphasize the importance of this organization and point out the catastrophic consequences that any change in the composition of the UN Security Council could entail,” the expert emphasized.

In turn, Ruslan Kostyuk, professor at the Faculty of International Relations at St Petersburg University, noted that it was impossible to implement the plan to expel Russia from the UN.

“The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry should understand the impossibility of a legitimate implementation of such a scenario.

These statements should be considered in the context of the general initiatives of Ukrainian diplomacy in the UN.

The political significance is not very great, but there is still an informational effect.

This is pressure on Russia to present its actions as illegal.

I don’t see a real possibility of putting such a plan into practice, at least in the short term, ”said the interlocutor of RT.

Even if such a proposal is put to a vote, which is unlikely in itself, most of the UN member countries will not support it, Kostyuk believes, because they are not ready to take such radical steps.