Yury Kobzar19:37, 20.09.23

The President of Ukraine offered world leaders his vision of reforming the UN and strengthening it.

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky spoke at a meeting of the UN Security Council held in New York. UNIAN collected the main points from his speech.

The war continues due to the helplessness of the UN

At the beginning of his speech, the president recalled that Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine has been going on for 574 days. Zelensky stressed that this aggression was started by a state “which for some reason is still among the permanent members of the UN Security Council.”

“We must admit: the organization is at a dead end regarding aggressions. Humanity no longer pins its hopes on the UN when it comes to protecting the sovereign borders of nations. But I would not be here today if Ukraine did not have proposals for solutions,” the president said.

Reform of the veto power in the UN Security Council

According to Zelensky, the whole world sees why the UN is an incompetent organization.

“A veto in the hands of an aggressor is what has driven the UN into a dead end. Whoever you are, the existing UN system still makes you less than the veto power that only a few (UN members) have and which is used by one – Russia – to the detriment of all other UN members,” he said.

According to him, updating the rules for using the veto power in the UN Security Council is something that could become a key reform and return force to the UN Charter. The Ukrainian president proposes to give the UN General Assembly (that is, all UN members collectively) “a real opportunity to override a veto.”

“Subject to the acquisition of two-thirds of the votes, which will reflect the will of nations from Asia, and from Africa, and from Europe, and from the Americas, and from the Pacific Ocean region – a global qualified majority – the veto must actually be overcome, and such a resolution of the General Assembly The Assembly should be mandatory for all member states,” Zelensky suggests.

Expanding the membership of the UN Security Council

The second step proposed by Zelensky is the full accountability of the UN Security Council to the “nations of the world.” The President proposes to implement this by expanding the number of Security Council participants. (Note that now there are only 15 of them: China, Russia, Great Britain, the USA and France – on a permanent basis, the rest – by rotation according to a quota from the main regions of the world).

“The African Union should be here permanently. Asia deserves wider permanent representation. Germany deserves a place among the permanent members of the Security Council. Latin America should be represented here – permanently. And the states of the Pacific Ocean,” the president said.

In addition, he proposes to expand the participation of other UN member states in the work of the Security Council structures.

“And at the same time, any participation of any member state of the Security Council must be suspended for the time when such a state, in violation of the UN Charter, commits aggression against another nation,” the president added.

Prevention of new aggressions

The third step proposed by Vladimir Zelensky is the creation of an effective system for preventing aggression by early response to such actions and the introduction of “powerful sanctions” against the aggressor.

“Everyone who wants to start a war must see, even before his fatal mistake, what exactly he will lose when he starts a war. The issue of applying preventive sanctions should be submitted to the UN Security Council automatically when any member of the General Assembly declares a threat of aggression,” – stated the president.

Ukraine Peace Plan

Separately, Zelensky briefly outlined the Ukrainian vision of how the war in Ukraine, started by Russia, should end:

1. Complete withdrawal of all Russian troops and military formations, including the Russian Black Sea Fleet, all Russian mercenaries and quasi-military formations from all sovereign territory of Ukraine within our internationally recognized 1991 borders.
2. Full return to Ukraine of effective control over the entire state border and exclusive economic zone in the Black and Azov Seas, as well as in the Kerch Strait.

“When I was preparing the Ukrainian peace formula, I took strength for its points from the principles of the UN Charter and the resolutions that were adopted by the General Assembly,” the president emphasized.

(C)UNIAN 2023