UNITED NATIONS, November 1. /TASS/. Russia has prevented the adoption of the agenda of the UK presidency in the UN Security Council because the proposal called for holding a meeting on Ukraine, said Russia’s first deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitriy Polyansky.
"There are questions from news media as to why we did not allow the working program of the UK presidency of the UN Security Council in November to be adopted. Let me explain: We did this because its draft initially included a meeting on Ukraine. We believe that the program should contain meetings in accordance with the mandate-reporting cycle of the Security Council (mandate renewals, reports of the UN secretary-general and so on). Ukraine is not one of these issues. Of course, during each presidency there will be pressing issues and situations that need to be discussed by the members of the Security Council. We have no objection to this and never dispute requests for meetings on Ukrainian issues. On the contrary, we request some of our own, as we believe it is necessary to consider the aspects of the Ukrainian crisis that Western countries try to sidestep," the diplomat wrote on Telegram.
The UK took over the rotating UN presidency on November 1.
"The working program is a purely informal form of notifying UN members, journalists and other interested parties about upcoming events," Polyansky said.
A meeting is only considered agreed upon on the day it is held, when the Security Council approves the agenda.
"So it has be a year now, after we blocked the working programs of the US and Albanian presidencies in 2023 for the same reason, since members of the Security Council have not included meetings on Ukraine in their programs. And everything was normally agreed. There were no problems. However, this time around the arrogant British decided to do it as a matter of principle. So be it - they were left without a program! This is what happens when a Security Council presidency tries to impose his priorities on other members of the Security Council," he went on to say.
The UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine on November 18 will be one of the key events of the UK presidency, the UK envoy to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said at a news conference at the UN headquarters earlier. UK Foreign Minister David Lammy is expected to attend the meeting.