You're reading: Russian official: Ukraine may become non-permanent member of UN Security Council in 2016-2017

Ukraine has good prospects of becoming a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2016-2017, Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin has said.

“I think it will happen,” he said on Rossiya 24 TV channel.

“Ukraine fairly long ago indicated its interest in becoming a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2016-2017. There is a rule at the United Nations: there are five regional groups. One of them is the East European regional group. Each group has a certain number of seats assigned to it and the East European group has one non-permanent seat on the Security Council. Now it is held by Lithuania that will be leaving the Security Council next year. So far there are no other contenders for the seat,” the diplomat said.