Ukrainian envoy to UN hints at illegitimacy of Russia's participation in Security Council

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya has said that the Security Council and the UN General Assembly in due course didn’t vote on the adoption of the Russian Federation instead of the Soviet Union after its collapse in 1991, which provoked a series of tragic events.

“The event that took place in this hall in December 1991 set off a series of tragic events. Imagine, on the last day before Christmas, the chairman of the Security Council, Soviet Ambassador to the UN Yuri Vorontsov, closes the meetings of the Council. The next meeting of the Council is opened by the same person - and, oh, a miracle! - as a representative of another country - the Russian Federation. A country that at that time was out of the UN Charter and generally the UN member states’ list,” Kyslytsya said, according to the RBK-Ukraine.

He also pointed out the fact that there was no vote in the Security Council on this issue.

“There was no vote at the General Assembly. There was no official decision of anybody, and not because of the Christmas holidays,” Kyslytsya emphasised.

He recalled that the former President of Russia Boris Yeltsin only notified the UN of his decision, and someone took this decision for execution without public discussion and a vote.

“And Ambassador Vorontsov managed to convince the secretary general to accept his credentials under the tree as a representative of Russia,” Kyslytsya emphasised.