On October 15, Ukraine won a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, giving the country a new platform to spar diplomatically with permanent veto-wielding member Russia.
Ukraine won the mandate to represent Eastern European countries on the council. Four other countries – Egypt, Japan, Senegal, and Uruguay – were also elected to non-permanent seats on the 15-member council for 2016-2017. Their terms begin on January 1, 2016.
Ukraine was expected to win the Security Council seat, and it had vowed to stand up to Russia, which has used its veto power to wage a strategic tug-of-war with Ukraine and the West.
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin, who traveled to New York to campaign for his country’s election, said that Ukraine has a broader global agenda but that its tone with Russia will “definitely not be conciliatory.”
“For the first time, we have an absolutely unique, unimaginable situation… that a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council is an aggressor in Ukraine, waging a hybrid war against Ukraine,” Mr. Klimkin said.
He indicated Ukraine foresees gradually limiting and eventually abolishing the right to veto on the Security Council, which is held by permanent members Russia, Britain, China, France and the United States.
“Abuse of the veto right – its usage as a ‘license to kill’ – is unacceptable,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told the U.N. in September.
France also wants to limit the use of the veto. It has sought to persuade the other four permanent members not to use their veto when action is required to address a mass atrocity.
Russia has vetoed two resolutions on Ukraine – one affirming Crimea as part of Ukraine and one aiming to set up an international criminal tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine.
Richard Gowan, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations focusing on the U.N., told the German dpa news agency that despite Ukraine’s vow to fight Russia, the country will not radically change the dynamics on the council.
Lithuania, which currently represents Eastern Europe, has already harshly criticized Russia over Ukraine.
He noted that despite scathing comments from other Security Council members over the Ukraine conflict, Russia has largely ignored the criticism, which Ukraine’s presence will not change.
“I foresee some token diplomatic fireworks from the Ukrainians, but no real change to how the council functions,” he said.
With reporting by Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.
Copyright 2015, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted (in updated form) with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington DC 20036; www.rferl.org (see http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-vows-challenge-russia-stint-un-security-council/27307250.html).