Estonian Deputy Foreign Minister Mart Volmer on Wednesday advised Ukrainian authorities to abandon aspirations to expel Russia from the United Nations due to lack of international support.
Volmer stressed that Estonia has always been on Ukraine’s side when it comes to calls for sanctions against Russia, acknowledging that the expulsion request is “correct”.
“However, it should be taken into account that Ukraine unfortunately does not have much international support in this matter,” Estonia’s diplomatic representative complained.
Volmer acknowledged that Russia’s expulsion from the UN Security Council and other UN bodies would be possible if more countries aligned themselves with Ukraine’s position that Moscow took advantage of the fall of the former Soviet Union to create a place in these organs.
“It doesn’t seem very viable at the moment and worth a try,” insisted Volmer, who also believes Russia will exercise its veto power if the issue comes to the Security Council’s table.
The Estonian representative believes that it is precisely this aspect that prevents most countries from admitting the possibility of expelling Russia at this point, as they do not believe it to be a “realistic” possibility, taking into account the authority of Moscow.
“Russia must be influenced where it is really feasible, where there is some support, where we can keep it out of the world’s decision-making processes,” the Estonian deputy foreign minister concluded.
On Monday, the Ukrainian foreign ministry called for Russia to be excluded from the United Nations.
“Ukraine calls on UN member states to strip the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to exclude it from the UN as a whole,” the Ukrainian diplomacy said in a statement.
For Kiev, Russia “illegally occupies the USSR’s seat on the UN Security Council” since 1991, when the former Soviet Union split into 15 new countries, arguing that “Russia is a usurper of the place.”
Russia is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and has veto power.
The United States of America, China, France and the United Kingdom are the other countries that have a permanent seat on this body.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 and still ongoing, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
