Statement by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine H.E. Mr. Sergiy Kyslytsy at the UNSC meeting under agenda item “Letter dated 28 February 2014 from the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/2014/136)”.
(23 February 2022)
Distinguished members of the Security Council,
Secretary General,
Under-Secretary,
Before I try to deliver parts of my statement that I came here with tonight, most of it is already useless, since 10pm New York time. I would like to cite Article 4 of the UN Charter. And it says: “Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving States which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter, and in the judgment of the Organization are able and willing to carry out these obligations.”
Russia is not able to carry out any of the obligations. The Ambassador of the Russian Federation 3 minutes ago confirmed that his President declared war on my country.
So, before I read parts of my statement, I would like to avail of the presence of the Secretary-General, and ask him to distribute among the members of the Security Council and the members of the General Assembly the legal memos by the Legal council of the United Nations dated December 1991 and in particular the legal memo dated 19 December 1991, the one that we have been trying to get from the Secretariat for a very long time but were denied it.
The Article 4 of the Paragraph 2 of the Charter reads: “The admission of any such State to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council”.
Mr. Secretary-General,
Please instruct the Secretariat to distribute among the members of the Security Council and the members of the General Assembly the decision by the Security Council dated December 1991 that recommends that the Russian Federation can be a member of this Organization; as well as the decision of the UNGA dated 1991 where GA welcomes the Russian Federation to this Organization. It would be a miracle if the Secretariat is able to produce these decisions.
There is nothing in the UN Charter about continuity as a sneaky way to get into the Organization.
So, when I was coming here an hour or so ago, I was intending to ask the Russian Ambassador to confirm on the record that Russian troops will not start firing at Ukrainians today and will not go ahead with the offensive. It became useless. Forty-eight minutes ago. Because about forty-eight minutes ago your President declared war on Ukraine.
So now I would like, Ambassador of Russia, to ask you to say on the record if at this very moment your troops are not shelling and bombing Ukrainian cities. That your troops are not moving in the territory of Ukraine. You have a smartphone, you can call Lavrov right now. We can make a pause to let you go out and call him. If you are not in a position to give an affirmative answer the Russian Federation ought to relinquish responsibilities of the President of the Security Council, pass these responsibilities onto a legitimate member of the UNSC. The member who is respectful of the Charter. And I ask the members of the UNSC to convene an emergence meeting immediately and consider all necessary draft decisions to stop the war.
Because it is too late, my dear colleagues, to speak about de-escalation! Too late! The Russian President declared war. On the record. Should I play the video of your President? Ambassador, shall I do it? Or will you confirm it?
Do not interrupt me when I am speaking.
Anyway, you declared the war. It is the responsibility of this body to stop the war. So, I call on everyone of you to do everything possible to stop the war.
The war criminals don’t go to purgatory, Ambassador, they go straight to hell!
Thank you very much.