Melnyk reminds UN that Russia illegally take seat on security council and tries to distort principles of charter
Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN, Andrii Melnyk, once again drew the attention of the United Nations to the questionable legal grounds on which Russia assumed the seat of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and called for it to be stripped of this status.
He stated this on Wednesday during a high-level open debate at the UN Security Council on upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and strengthening the international system based on the Organization's foundations.
"It is time for the UN Member States to finally show Russia a red card and deprive it from this unearned privilege," Melnyk said.
He stressed that Ukraine was among the founding states of the UN and that the Ukrainian people paid millions of lives for victory over Nazism in World War II.
"Therefore, for us, Ukrainians, the principles enshrined in the UN Charter are not abstract concepts written on paper. They are part of a legacy paid for with millions of lives," the ambassador said.
According to him, Russia, while declaring adherence to the principles of the UN Charter, constantly violates them by waging war against Ukraine.
"Every single day and every single night, Russia rides roughshod over the very Charter it falsely claims to defend," Melnyk said.
According to Melnyk, Russia is doing this "with the bloody boots of its soldiers on Ukrainian soil," through airstrikes on Ukrainian cities, hospitals, and schools, the abduction of Ukrainian children, torture, and sexual violence.
"The level of hypocrisy and cynicism of Russia we are witnessing today has reached truly staggering proportions," he emphasized.
The diplomat also pointed to Moscow's claims about so-called "legitimate security interests," which it uses to justify aggression against Ukraine.
"could anyone point me to a single provision of the UN Charter where this deeply flawed notion appears?" he asked members of the Security Council.
According to Melnyk, Russia has been trying for years to redraw borders by force, as in the Middle Ages. It is frantically constructing a parallel reality designed to replace and distort the very principles of the UN Charter, he stressed.
"In that distorted parallel reality that Mr. Putin seeks to create aggression is rebranded as 'self-defence,' occupation as 'liberation,' and grave violations of international law as 'acts of justice,''" the ambassador said.
He stressed that accepting the idea that a powerful state may violate the territorial integrity of a neighbor for the sake of its own "security interests" would amount to dismantling the international order.
"We are no longer defending the Charter. We are dismantling it. Step by step, principle by principle, brick by brick," Melnyk noted.
He also accused Russia of abusing its veto power and holding the Security Council "hostage."
"No one shall be allowed to misuse its privileged status as a license to act with impunity," Ukraine's permanent representative stressed.
As Ukrinform reported, the United Nations Security Council will convene on Thursday at 22:00 Kyiv time to discuss the escalation of Russian attacks on Ukraine's civilian population.
Photo: video screenshot