Russia took over the presidency of the UN Security Council on Saturday for the whole month of April, "a slap in the face of the international community" for Ukraine and "an April Fool's joke" for the Westerners.

"Russia's presidency of the United Nations Security Council is a slap in the face of the international community," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.

According to him, "the current members" of the executive body of the UN must "thwart any attempt" by Russia to "abuse its presidency".

Thursday, Mr. Kouleba had already called this Russian presidency a “bad joke”, considering that “Russia has usurped its seat; it is waging a colonial war; its president is a war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court for child abduction”.

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These criticisms from Kiev, however, did not prevent Moscow from ensuring that its delegation to the UN this month, to succeed Mozambique, would be led by the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov.

“Another key event of the Russian presidency will be the high-level open debate of the (Security) Council on effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the United Nations Charter. This meeting will be chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,” his spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, even told reporters on Thursday.

She pointed out that Mr. Lavrov also intended to chair a session of debates on the Middle East on April 25.