Russia Loses U.N. Aviation Council Seat

Russia failed to be re-elected to the Council of the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) during its recent 41st session. The news was announced on Oct. 3 by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov on the official Ukrainian government site.

” The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure has, right from the start of the full-scale invasion to this day, been working on the complete infrastructure isolation of the Russian Federation. A state that has committed armed aggression against Ukraine and kills civilians has no place among the civilized world,” Kubrakov said.

“A state that steals other people’s planes and orders the crew of a Buk missile system to kill a civilian aircraft has no place in the civilized world. Today’s decision by the ICAO to exclude Russia from the council confirms this,” he added, in clear reference to the deadly shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014.

The exclusion of Russia from the ICAO governing body is also the result of a violation by the Russian authorities of the Chicago Convention, which sets out the basic requirements and regulations of international aviation.

“This is the first precedent among all organizations of the UN system when Russia was completely excluded from the governing body. They were thrown out deservedly because of systemic violations of the Chicago Convention. The truth will always win!”, Yulia Kovaliv, Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, said.

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Russia received a rebuke on June 15 on flight safety under the ICAO supervision program for double registration of aircraft stolen from leasing companies and for using such aircraft to perform flights in international airspace without airworthiness certificates. The ICAO said these actions were an unacceptable violation of international requirements and standards and a danger to the lives of passengers.

The ICAO is a specialized UN agency and organizes and coordinates international cooperation between states in all aspects of civil aviation activities. About 190 countries, including Ukraine, are members of the ICAO. The ICAO Council is a permanent governing body of 36 countries elected by the assembly for a three-year term.