According to Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will chair a session of the UN Security Council during the Russian Council Presidency.
“A (…) key event of the Russian Presidency will be the Council’s high-level public debate on ‘effective multilateralism by defending the principles of the UN Charter’,” Lavrov’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told journalists on Thursday. This session will be chaired by the Russian Foreign Minister, she added.
The presidency of the UN Security Council rotates monthly, with the 15 member states alternating in alphabetical order. In April it is Russia’s turn.
Ukraine has sharply criticized Russia’s forthcoming takeover of the Council presidency. The Russian presidency of the UN Security Council, which begins on April 1, is “a bad joke,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
Russia illegitimately won its seat on the council, is waging a “colonial war” and its leader is “a war criminal” for whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for kidnapping Ukrainian children, Kuleba continued.
As a presidency, Russia would have little influence on the Council’s decisions, but would set the agenda. Ukraine demands that Russia be expelled from the highest UN body over the invasion of Ukraine. Russia last chaired the Security Council in February 2022, when Moscow sent Russian troops into Ukraine. (AFP)
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