Russia must be thrown out of the UN Security Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes. He accuses the Russians of war crimes against civilians.
Russia is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and thus has veto rights. It used the right to stop a statement on the war in Ukraine last week.
“A country that commits war crimes against civilians cannot be a member of the UN Security Council,” Zelenskyj said in a video shared on social media.
“This is Ukraine. This is Europe. This is 2022. The evil armed with rockets, bombs, and grenades must be stopped immediately,” he noted.
Accusations
Russia has denied that the country has committed war crimes or direct attacks on civilians.
Zelensky says Russia must be economically destroyed by sanctions to prove that humanity can protect itself.
Russia has been accused of using cluster munitions in the war in Ukraine, including in Kharkiv. The attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, are a war crime, Zelenskyj said, calling for an investigation.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch are among those who claim cluster munitions have been used in the war.
“Unacceptable”
Russia, for its part, claims that Ukrainian nationalists are behind the artillery bombing of Ukrainian cities. This claim has not been confirmed.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres says there is reliable information that residential areas and civilian infrastructure are severely damaged. Civilian losses are unacceptable, he warned.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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““A country that commits war crimes against civilians cannot be a member of the UN Security Council,””
So who would be left?
The primary purpose and success of the UN has been to avert another infinitely worse world war, and giving the major powers their permanent seats – with veto power – on the Security Council has enabled that.
The UN is a basically democratic world organization which has enabled democratic and humanitarian principles and ideals to spread internationally, and Zelensky’s very UNdemocratic demand is subversive of those and shows he should be receiving no democratic and/or humanitarian accolades.
He made the foolish, Munich-emboldened mistake of opening the door to Ukraine having nuclear weapons which triggered the Russians – their invasion – and here is another which discredits his democratic credibility and credentials.
Of course, he is as desperate for his people as is Putin for his, desperately launching this war to prevent any outright Libya-like NATO attack on Russia, let alone more act-of-war regime-change attempts, but … for his people … he needs to be far wiser in what he says.
Volodymyr should have granted the Russians a fair security treaty, and he still should, although after losing 1000s of young Russians, their terms will now be harsher.