Ukraine demands Russia’s expulsion from the UN

Ukraine on Monday called for Russia’s expulsion from the United Nations, where Moscow, as a permanent member of the Security Council, can veto any resolution.

“Ukraine calls on the member states of the UN to strip the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to expel it from the UN as a whole,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement said that since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has “illegally occupied the USSR seat on the UN Security Council.”

“From a legal and political point of view, there can only be one conclusion: Russia is a usurper of the Soviet Union’s seat on the UN Security Council,” the ministry added.

“Three decades of their illegal presence at the United Nations were marked by wars and the confiscation of territories from other countries,” the statement said.

The five permanent members of the 15-seat UN Security Council have the right to veto UN resolutions.

© Agence France-Presse