Yelchenko: It must be stated that UN has exhausted its potential
Some 78 years after the UN creation, it must be stated that the Organization has exhausted its potential, the current system of international law has ceased to exist, Ukrainian diplomat, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN in 2015-2019 Volodymyr Yelchenko has said.
As Yelchenko emphasized during a press conference "Russia's illegal presence in UN: Problem and its solution" at Interfax-Ukraine, the UN "at least has exhausted its potential and cannot respond to the challenges posed by the events not only in Ukraine and Russian aggression against Ukraine, but also in many other parts of the world."
"You can recall the UN as such, but the fact is that the UN is, let's say, two components. On the one hand, when we are dissatisfied with the UN work, we often mean such a slow and passive attitude, or the work of the UN secretariat or staff. And all over the world, together with local staff, there are more than 40,000, of which 5,000-6,000 work mediocrely in the secretariats in New York, Geneva, Paris, Vienna and so on. And about 100,000 more so-called UN peacekeepers, that is, the personnel of those peacekeeping operations that are scattered around the world," he said.
At the same time, Yelchenko explained that on the other side of the UN, these are 193 member countries, including Ukraine, which actually make the decisions on which all the work of the further organization is based and the actions that this organization can take.
"I'm leading to the fact that, in fact, 77 or almost 78 years after the UN creation with the signing of the charter of this organization in 1945, well, it must be stated that the UN has exhausted its potential," the diplomat said.
He explained that the system of collective security in the world was built over 70 years and was based on the UN Charter.
"But no one in 1945, well, perhaps, except Stalin, could imagine in a nightmare that one of the five states that were endowed with this charter with permanent membership of the UN Security Council, including the right of veto, would itself begin to violate the same principles under which he signed," Yelchenko said.
He also stressed that no one could also assume that this country would be the Russian Federation, which "actually appropriated the place of the Soviet Union in December 1991 groundlessly and illegally."
"And every lawyer can easily prove this to you. Simply by changing the signs: instead of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation," the diplomat assured.
He also added that "few people know that even the State Duma of the Russian Federation did not bother to ratify the UN charter, the only country out of 193."
According to Yelchenko, the current system of international law has also ceased to exist.
"This system does not work, which means that the world has actually found itself in such a dead end, because everything that has been developing and evolving for 100-150 years before, is not able to resolve the conflicts that continue in the world today," he said.
Yelchenko believes that the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine should end with a Ukrainian victory and the restructuring of the entire system that exists today.
"Either the creation of a completely new international organization, or a total reform of the UN, which I do not believe in at all. Because I spent more than half of my 40 years of diplomatic service within the walls of this organization and I am completely convinced that the organization is not subject to any reform," the diplomat said.