Ukraine demanded on Monday Russia’s removal from the United Nations, where Moscow can veto any resolution as a permanent member of the Security Council.
“Ukraine calls on the member states of the UN … to deprive 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 foreign ministry said in a statement.
The statement said that Russia “illegally occupies the seat of the USSR in the UN Security Council” since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“From a legal and political point of view, there can be only one conclusion: Russia is an usurper of the Soviet Union’s seat in the UN Security Council,” the ministry added.
“Three decades of its illegal presence in the UN have been marked by wars and seizures of other countries’ territories,” the statement said.
Peace
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said he sought India’s help with implementing a “peace formula” in a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The conversation comes at a time when India, which has not explicitly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is seeking to strengthen trade relations with Moscow while Western nations introduce new measures to limit Russia’s funding of the war.
“I had a phone call with PM Narendra Modi and wished a successful G20 presidency,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter. “It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India’s participation in its implementation.”
I had a phone call with @PMOIndia Narendra Modi and wished a successful #G20 presidency. It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India's participation in its implementation. I also thanked for humanitarian aid and support in the UN.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 26, 2022
Ukrainian ‘saboteurs’ killed
Russia’s FSB domestic security service said Monday it had killed a group of saboteurs from Ukraine that had attempted to cross into a Russian border region.
“As a result of a clash on December 25, 2022, four saboteurs, who attempted to enter the territory of Bryansk region from Ukraine, were killed,” the FSB said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
It added that they were carrying German submachine guns, navigation equipment and “four improvised explosive devices”.
Russia has accused pro-Kyiv forces of a number of sabotage attacks, including a blast that damaged a bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia.
Drone attack on Russian military base
A Ukrainian drone shot down over Engels military base in Russia’s Saratov region, located more than 600 kilometres east of the border with Ukraine, is raising questions about the effectiveness of Russia’s air defences if drones can fly that far into the country. Debris from the falling drone killed at least three military staff on the ground, Russian defence officials reported.
Ukrainian officials have never confirmed sending drones into Russia. They have maintained ambiguity over previous high-profile attacks, including drone strikes on Russian military bases earlier this month.
FRANCE 24 correspondent in Kyiv Astrig Agopian has more on the story, including the possibility of Russian airstrikes in Ukraine in reprisal of the attack.
FRANCE24
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