Russia assumes the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council amid international criticism

Zelenski has stressed that "terrorists should not preside over anything"

Russia has assumed this Saturday the monthly rotating presidency of the UN Security Council amid criticism from Ukraine and its allies who remind Moscow of its repeated mockery of the international legal system.

Each of the 15 members --five permanent and 10 rotating-- that make up the Security Council assume the presidency for one month. The last time Russia chaired the UN's highest decision-making body was in February 2022, when it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It is also the first time that the president of a country that presides over the Security Council has an international arrest warrant for war crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued the injunction last month for the forced deportation of minors from Ukrainian orphanages.

The presidential position does not grant special prerogatives, although the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasili Nebenzia, has highlighted in statements to the Russian news agency TASS that it will allow them to "supervise" certain debates, including the one related to arms control. Thus, they will raise the need for "a new world order" that "replaces the unipolar order."

Ukraine has insistently protested that Russia take over the presidency of the Security Council, but the United States has responded that it cannot prevent Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council and with veto power, from assuming the post. The United States, the United Kingdom, France and China also have veto rights.

The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has responded that "unfortunately Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council, so there is no practical legal way to avoid that reality." She has also warned that Moscow will "continue to use its Council seat to spread disinformation" and justify its invasion of Ukraine.

In February 2022, Russia already vetoed a resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine. China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained. In September Moscow vetoed a resolution calling for it to reverse the annexation of four regions of Ukraine. Brazil, China, Gabon and India abstained.

From kyiv they have expressed their absolute rejection. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski has described the events as "absurd and destructive." "Today the terrorist state has begun to preside over the UN Security Council," he pointed out in a speech published by the Ukrainian Presidency.

"Yesterday the Russian Army killed another Ukrainian child, a five-month-old baby named Danilo, from Avdiyivka, in Donbas. His parents were injured. Russian artillery... One of hundreds of artillery strikes the terrorist state launches every day. And at the same time Russia presides over the Security Council. It is difficult to imagine something that is as evident as this to demonstrate the complete collapse of these institutions," he reproached.

Zelensky has denounced that "there is no form of terrorism that has not been perpetrated by Russia" and "there is no reason to stop the reform of global institutions, particularly the UN Security Council." "A clearly necessary reform that prevents a terrorist State or any other State that wants to be a terrorist from disturbing the peace. Terrorists must lose, they must be held accountable for terror and they must not preside over anything," he stressed.

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dimitro Kuleba, has described the event as "a bad joke" that has been linked to the April Fool's Day of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, which is celebrated precisely on April 1.

"Russia has usurped its place," said Kuleba, whose government has been calling for greater forcefulness against Moscow within the UN for a year. "The world cannot be a safe place with Russia on the Security Council," added the minister, using the hashtag in his message

For Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podoliak it is "another violation of international law." Russia, "an entity that wages an aggressive war, violates the rules of International Humanitarian Law and Criminal Law, destroys the UN Charter and neglects nuclear security cannot preside over the most important security organization in the world," he pointed out. .

The Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, already last year called for a reform or the "dissolution" of the Security Council before its incapacity due to the Russian veto to prevent the Russian military invasion of the east of the country.