Dmytro Kuleba made the statement via Twitter on Thursday morning.
He wrote: “Russian UN Security Council presidency on 1 April is a bad joke.”
Ukraine’s top diplomat added: “Russia has usurped its seat; it is waging a colonial war; its leader is a war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court for kidnapping children.”
Kuleba stated: “The world can’t be a safe place with Russia at UNSC.”
According to the UN Charter, the UNSC’s core functions and powers include “to maintain international peace and security in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations,” as well as “to investigate any dispute or situation which might lead to international friction” and “to recommend methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of settlement.”
The presidency of the UNSC is held by each of its 15 members in turn for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the member states' names, according to officials.
Russia will chair the UNSC throughout April, following Mozambique’s presidency in March. It will replaced by Switzerland in May.
Russia, one of five permanent UNSC members alongside China, France, Britain and the United States, last presided over the Council in February 2022, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper noted.
Russia launched a full-blown invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Russian attacks on frontline decreased in March: Ukraine
Meanwhile, the average number of daily Russian attacks on the frontline has declined for four straight weeks since the beginning of March, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday morning, citing Ukraine’s general staff.
The figure fell to 69 in the past seven days from 124 in the week of March 1-7, with just 57 attacks reported on Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian military.
Reuters said its journalists near the besieged city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, and further north, reported a notable decrease in the intensity of Russian assaults last week.
Meanwhile, Russian officials say their forces are still “capturing ground in street-by-street fighting inside Bakhmut,” Reuters reported.
Ukraine’s general staff said on Wednesday night that “enemy forces had a degree of success in their actions aimed at storming the city of Bakhmut.”
Thursday is day 400 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, un.org, The Guardian, Reuters