Russia to reconvene UN Security Council regarding Ukraine’s language law
The Russian delegation has once again called for discussion of Ukraine’s language law in the UN Security Council. Another session on the matter has provisionally been scheduled for 16 July, reports Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Permanent Mission to UN.
“As we recall, on 20 May, the Russians tried to convene a far-fetched session on the day of the Ukrainian president’s inauguration. This time the formal reason was the law coming into force. Although everyone understands that Moscow is interested not so much in the law on language, as in any opportunity to destabilize the situation in Ukraine. The Ukrainian delegation to the UN has repeatedly said that the language law is our country’s internal affair. The Security Council has nothing to do with it,” the diplomat wrote on his Facebook page.
Nikolenko says that Ukraine and its partners will use the session to discuss the pressing issues in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, especially the release of the Ukrainian sailors and political prisoners, the ongoing shelling in the Donbas, which continues to result in human deaths, and Russia’s responsibility for the MH17 catastrophe.
On 20 May 2019, the Russian delegation tried to hold a UN Security Council session on Ukraine’s language law. It did not happen due to the failure in the agenda voting procedure. At the start of the session, representatives of several countries opposed the consideration of the topic, especially on the inauguration day of Ukraine’s new president, perceiving it as an attempt by Russia to put pressure on Kyiv.