Russian missiles pounded civilian apartment blocks in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, a day after Ukrainian leaders expressed outrage that Moscow is being allowed to take control of the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that the development exposes the “total bankruptcy” of the world security body, calling Russia’s move into the presidency “absurd and destructive news.”
“It’s hard to imagine anything that proves more the total bankruptcy of such institutions,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in a video address amid Russian military strikes targeting civilians in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president lamented that Russian shelling had killed a 5-month-old boy Friday, according to wire reports. That carnage was followed Sunday with a barrage of Russian strikes on Kostyantynivka, a city near the intense fighting in Bakhmut.
A top Ukrainian official said on social media that at least six civilians were killed when Russian missiles and rockets damaged 16 apartment blocks in the industrial city, according to the BBC, although the death toll was not immediately verified.
The fresh wave of Russian strikes targeting civilians followed other expressions of frustration from Ukrainian officials toward the U.N. Security Council development.
“[The] Russian UNSC presidency is a slap in the face to the international community,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Saturday. “I urge the current UNSC members to thwart any Russian attempts to abuse its presidency. I also remind that Russia is an outlaw on the UNSC.”
The Kremlin said Friday that it plans to “exercise all its rights” during Russia’s one-month rotation in the role, according to a report published by France 24.
The Biden administration has taken a resigned posture toward the development.
President Biden sharply criticized Russia in remarks to the United Nations in September, saying Russia “shamelessly violated the core tenets of the United Nations Charter” by invading Ukraine in February 2022.
But administration officials last week said Russia’s status as a permanent UNSC member means Moscow will be allowed to assume control of the rotating security council presidency in New York for the month of April, and there is no viable means to block the development.
“We urge Russia to conduct itself professionally,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a news briefing, according to Reuters. “We expect Russia to continue to use its seat on the council to spread disinformation” and justify its actions in Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and no feasible international legal pathway exists to change that reality,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. “The reality is this is a larger position, which rotates to council members month by month in alphabetical order.”
China, another of the UNSC’s permanent member nations, has recently called for peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, although there were signs Sunday such negotiations remain out of reach.
Among a range of issues standing in the way is Russia’s occupation of the Crimean Peninsula. Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, but most of the world does not recognize it as Russian territory.
The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and acknowledge other land gains made by Moscow as a condition for peace. Kyiv has ruled out any peace talks with Moscow until Russian troops leave all occupied territories, including Crimea.
A top Ukrainian official on Sunday outlined a series of steps Ukraine would take after its forces reclaim control of Crimea, including dismantling the bridge that links the Black Sea Peninsula to Russia.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, published the plan as Ukraine’s military prepares for a spring counteroffensive in hopes of making decisive gains after more than 13 months of war.
Mr. Danilov suggested prosecuting Ukrainians who worked for the Moscow-appointed administration in Crimea, adding that some would face criminal charges and others would lose government pensions and be banned from public jobs.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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