Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, September 20, directly challenged Russia at the UN Security Council, labeling the Kremlin’s invasion of his nation as “illegitimate” and calling for the removal of Moscow’s UN veto authority.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday confronted Russia directly at the UN Security Council, denouncing the Kremlin’s invasion of his country as “criminal” and urging that Moscow be stripped of its UN veto power.
Clad in his trademark military fatigues, Zelensky for the first time since the February 2022 invasion sat in the same room as a Russian official, who responded by scrolling through his smartphone with a look of conspicuous disinterest.
Zelensky called on the United Nations to strip Russia of its Security Council veto power, describing it as a vital reform that would simultaneously promote greater representation at the UN for the developing world, where support for Ukraine has been lukewarm.
Zelensky repeated the Ukrainian stance that the veto power belonged to the former Soviet Union, one of the victors of World War II after which the United Nations was created, and not to President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Taking away Russia’s veto power would be exceedingly difficult.
There is, however, precedent: the UN General Assembly in 1971 stripped Taiwan of the veto power it held as the representative of China, handing it instead to the communist government of the mainland.
Tensions erupted even before Zelensky spoke, with the Russian side questioning the decision by current Security Council president Albania, represented by Prime Minister Edi Rama, to allow the Ukrainian to go first.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, repeatedly asking to speak, told Rama that letting Zelensky, a former comedian, appear first risked “undermining the authority of the Security Council” and turning it into “a one-man stand-up show.”
Rama responded calmly but with growing annoyance, telling the Russian envoy, “There is a solution here, you stop the war, and President Zelensky will not take the floor.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke before Zelensky and also strongly criticized Russia.
Addressing the General Assembly on Tuesday, Zelensky said that Russia’s deportations of Ukrainian children, which triggered the warrant for Putin, constituted “genocide.”
Zelensky cast support for Ukraine as in the world’s interest, saying that Russia was “weaponizing” both food and energy, including by halting a UN-backed arrangement that let Ukraine ship grain safely through the Black Sea.
Some developing nations have been critical of the attention granted to Ukraine, which has received some $43 billion in military aid from the United States alone.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
