Ukraine Seeks To Blunt Russia’s UN Veto Power

By konigludwig on September 16, 2015 • ( 1 )

Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, votes to veto on a draft resolution for establishing a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for downing the MH17 flight during a UN Security Council meeting in New York in July.

Ukraine has stepped up its effort to restrict Russia’s use of its veto in the UN Security Council, which Kyiv says has enabled the Kremlin to block international action to punish Moscow for “aggression.”

In a resolution unanimously adopted on September 16, the Ukrainian parliament called for urgent reform of the Security Council, in which Russia holds veto powers as one of the five permanent members.

“There is convincing evidence of the urgency to reform the veto [system] to prevent its abuse,” the Verkhovna Rada resolution said.

It said the veto has too often been used to “cover up the crime of aggression by a permanent member of the UN Security Council.”

The resolution urged UN member states to take “all possible measures to stop the Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

In July, Russia blocked a resolution that would have established a tribunal to try those suspected of responsibility for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine, which killed all 298 people aboard.

Also in July, Russia blocked a resolution that would have declared the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995, in which some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed, to be genocide.

The French initiative attracted attention after Russia and China used their veto power last year to block a resolution asking the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes committed in Syria, where Moscow has backed President Bashar al-Assad throughout a devastating civil war.