Kiev Supports French Proposal to Limit Veto Right for UNSC Pemanent Members

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine stands for the graduate limitation of the veto right of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with its further cancellation.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Ukraine supports France's proposal to limit the use of veto by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, President Petro Poroshenko said Tuesday.

"Ukraine stands for the graduate limitation of the veto right with its further cancellation…I welcome the initiative of my French colleague and friend President [Francois] Hollande supported by president Pena Nieto of Mexico on the political declaration to restrain from veto right among P5 [five permanent] members in case of the mass atrocities," Poroshenko said in his address to the UN General Assembly.

The Ukrainian leader stated that Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council, used its veto right in relation to Ukraine by blocking the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate the Malaysian airlines MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine, as well as establishment of a peacekeeping operation in the country.

The Malaysian airliner crashed in July 2014 in southeastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard. Kiev said an eastern Ukraine militia downed the plane. Militias in the area denied the accusations. Malaysia proposed a UN-based draft resolution to set up an international tribunal to prosecute those behind the crash but Moscow vetoed the motion.

Commenting on the calls to suspend the veto, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said that stripping the UN Security Council members of that power would destroy a well-designed system of checks-and-balances.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that the right of veto had always been used in the UN Security Council, and it was assumed that there would not always be consensus in the organization.