9.28.25
Russia is one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council whose purpose is to maintain international peace and security. But the country remained on the Council after its tanks rolled into Ukraine in February 2022. One year later, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared at the Security Council to request that Russia’s veto power be removed and said, “the veto has turned the Council into a morgue, blocking every effort to stop the slaughter.” Russia must be banned from UN membership and declared a terrorist state. Its ongoing involvement in the Security Council is equivalent to putting a serial killer in charge of the NYPD. That’s what the UN did in 1991 when it allowed Russia to replace the Soviet Union as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with a veto. The Soviet Union was also abusive and the first to use the veto in 1946, but Russia has gone further to clear the way for its warfare. It blocked action on Syria starting in the 2010s, vetoed a resolution on Crimea in 2014, and prevented a vote on its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Veto power is controversial, and some proponents argue that it’s needed because: a) the UN would break down if it attempted to enforce binding action against any permanent member, and b) the veto is a critical safeguard against United States domination. However, it’s been weaponized by Russia, is undemocratic, provides immunity for other permanent members or their allies, and is the reason behind the United Nations’ years of inaction against wars, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
It’s a privilege that has been abused. The Security Council veto privilege was granted to the five permanent members who “won” the Second World War – Russia, the US, the UK, France, and China. Another ten countries from the overall membership rotate in and out of the Council, but any of the five can veto a resolution even if all 14 other members approve it. Ironically, Russia shouldn’t have been allowed to sit on the Council. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, its 15 republics became independent states. Ukraine, which had fought more and suffered more wartime casualties than Russia itself, should have been given the honor of a permanent Security Council seat for helping defeat the Nazis. Instead, Boris Yeltsin simply declared that Russia would inherit the Soviet Union’s position. No legal vote ratified this takeover. The world simply acquiesced, and that mistake has paralyzed global governance ever since. To remove Russia, the UN Charter itself must be changed, but it cannot be because the process is rigged. Expelling a Security Council member requires a recommendation from the Security Council itself – but Russia or the other permanent members can simply veto their own expulsion. Checkmate. This rule is why the United Nations cannot keep the peace or control Putin’s global warmongering.Meanwhile, Putin rampages while post-war institutions, paralyzed, watch from the sidelines. Civilians are bombed and children abducted by the thousands. The reality is that as long as Russia remains on the Security Council, the UN will be irrelevant and damaging. As currently constituted, the UN gives Russia a license to kill and upend the world. That is the message that President Trump should have delivered this week.
www.kyivpost.com
