Ukraine initiates a comprehensive process aimed at expelling Russia from the UN Security Council and the United Nations in general, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said in a statement.
“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 document states.
The Foreign Ministry reminded that the collapse 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 status of the UN Member State and permanent member of the UN Security Council, held by the Russian Federation, remains an unsettled issue.
The statement emphasizes that Russia wrongly considers the issue to be settled, referring to the fact that since 24 December 1991, and in the public sphere - since 31 December 1991, a plaque with its name appeared in the UN Security Council.
“In fact, according to the UN Charter, there have 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 Foreign Ministry said.
However, the legitimate procedure for the Russian Federation to acquire UN membership and a seat among the permanent members of the Security Council should have necessarily included 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 a usurper of the Soviet Union's seat in the UN Security Council,” the Foreign Ministry noted.
Ukraine initiates a comprehensive process aimed at achieving the goals of this statement and in this context is ready to cooperate with other countries to jointly defend the UN Charter and international law from Russia's destructive influence.
“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,” the ministry said.