Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, strongly opposes the Russian presidency of the UN Security Council. He expressed his outrage in a series of Twitter messages and in several languages, referring to the month-long Russian presidency of the Council in April.

In English Kyslytsya asked: “If Russian missiles hit your cities will you let it preside in UN Security Council?” but he was even more straightforward in the tweet published in Polish. “Will Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia chair the UN Security Council? Would you let a career criminal preside over the Supreme Court?” Kyslytsa wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

If Russian missiles hit your cities will you let it preside over you in Security [email protected] @franceonu @UKUN_NewYork @USUN @MaltaUNMission @JapanMissionUN @swiss_un @EcuadorONU @UAEMissionToUN @Brazil_UN_NY @ghanamissionun @MozambiqueUn @MPNY_GabonOnu @Chinamission2un pic.twitter.com/J9nLfhLKgt

— Sergiy Kyslytsya (@SergiyKyslytsya) March 9, 2023

Russia, along with the U.S., China, UK, and France, is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – a body consisting of 15 countries, including 10 elected for a two-year term. Poland was last a non-permanent member of the Council in 2018-19.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the authorities in Kyiv have repeatedly questioned Russia’s right to sit on the Council.

“Russia is a usurper of the Soviet Union’s place in the UN Security Council. Ukraine has initiated a process of excluding Russia from the UN Security Council and the UN itself,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on December 26 last year.