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Why Ukraine thinks Russia doesn't belong at the United Nations
Ukraine has a good argument to strip the Russian Federation of its security council seat
Link to tweet
Sergiy Kyslytsy, who’d prepared a statement arguing for diplomacy, ditched it to castigate the Russians for their unprovoked aggression — but only after he’d read aloud the section of the U.N. Charter on admitting new members and accused Russia of having used a "sneaky" loophole to gain the power to veto Security Council action.
It's a bold claim — but one that isn’t as farfetched as it may seem. The Soviet Union died in December 1991, but there are several possible dates we might place on the U.S.S.R.’s metaphorical death certificate. Whichever one is deemed correct could alter the way international politics has functioned since the end of the Cold War.
The U.N. was born as the extension of the World War II alliance headed by the United States, Soviet Union, France, China and the United Kingdom. Those five members gained permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council, which has the ability to pass resolutions that all member states must follow. They can also veto any enforcement action, including economic sanctions, the use of force and even expulsion from the U.N.
That last point was of specific concern to Stalin during the meeting of the Soviets, British and Americans at Yalta. The Soviet dictator was unsure about his country’s participation in the post-war organization, remembering well the way the U.S.S.R. had been booted from the League of Nations in 1940, as author Stephen Schlesinger recounted in his book “Act of Creation.” The veto power would prevent such a thing from occurring, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden assured him. Stalin was mollified, but he also insisted on getting three seats in the U.N. General Assembly, one each for the Soviet Union, Belarus and Ukraine. The Western powers agreed, resulting in all three counting as founding members of the U.N......
Ukraine might be on the path to taking a similar tack, rallying the General Assembly’s members to either declare that Moscow can’t possess the Soviet Union’s seat and needs to reapply or pass the seat — and its veto power — on to another of the Soviet Union’s successors. But will it happen? It’s unlikely such a momentous shift in the international order would happen overnight. And even if such a change were to come in the next few days, China could still veto any set of international sanctions on Russia.
It's a bold claim — but one that isn’t as farfetched as it may seem. The Soviet Union died in December 1991, but there are several possible dates we might place on the U.S.S.R.’s metaphorical death certificate. Whichever one is deemed correct could alter the way international politics has functioned since the end of the Cold War.
The U.N. was born as the extension of the World War II alliance headed by the United States, Soviet Union, France, China and the United Kingdom. Those five members gained permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council, which has the ability to pass resolutions that all member states must follow. They can also veto any enforcement action, including economic sanctions, the use of force and even expulsion from the U.N.
That last point was of specific concern to Stalin during the meeting of the Soviets, British and Americans at Yalta. The Soviet dictator was unsure about his country’s participation in the post-war organization, remembering well the way the U.S.S.R. had been booted from the League of Nations in 1940, as author Stephen Schlesinger recounted in his book “Act of Creation.” The veto power would prevent such a thing from occurring, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden assured him. Stalin was mollified, but he also insisted on getting three seats in the U.N. General Assembly, one each for the Soviet Union, Belarus and Ukraine. The Western powers agreed, resulting in all three counting as founding members of the U.N......
Ukraine might be on the path to taking a similar tack, rallying the General Assembly’s members to either declare that Moscow can’t possess the Soviet Union’s seat and needs to reapply or pass the seat — and its veto power — on to another of the Soviet Union’s successors. But will it happen? It’s unlikely such a momentous shift in the international order would happen overnight. And even if such a change were to come in the next few days, China could still veto any set of international sanctions on Russia.
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