There will be no changes to Russia’s permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Representative to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield says.
“I’m also aware of their request to re-look at Russia’s permanent seat on the Security Council. But again, the Russians have the permanent seat, and I don’t see at the moment that there will be any changes in that,” she said during an interview on PBS’s “Firing Line” on May 6.
However, the United States will continue to isolate Russia.
The efforts to isolate Russia have been “very effective,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
During a speech on May 5 before the Security Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the U.N. for doing nothing about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The leader of the former Soviet republic proposed two options to the multinational organization: remove Russia or dissolve the U.N.
“Remove Russia as an aggressor and a source of war from blocking decisions about its own aggression, its own war. And then do everything that can establish peace,” he said. “Or if your current format is unalterable and there is simply no way out, then the only option would be to dissolve yourself altogether.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, which the Kremlin called “a special military operation.”
The U.N. said that as of May 6, 3,309 civilians had been killed and 3,493 injured in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, and almost 5.8 million people had fled the country.
After a botched effort to take control of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Russian forces recently shifted focus to the south and east of Ukraine, where the separatist or disputed territories are located. The Kremlin appears to be intent on occupying the corridor connecting Crimea and Donbas, with Mariupol being a key city along the corridor.
With a huge amount of weapons, training, and other military aid from its Western allies, the Ukrainian armed forces were able to slow or defeat Russian aggressions as the standoff drags on.
Russia’s most capable units and most advanced capabilities have been ruined by the Ukraine war, the UK Ministry of Defense said.
“It will take considerable time and expense for Russia to reconstitute its armed forces following this conflict. It will be particularly challenging to replace modernized and advanced equipment due to sanctions restricting Russia’s access to critical microelectronic components,” the agency wrote in an intelligence update.
