For the first time in history, the Russian Federation has been excluded from the Executive Council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced this on his social media account.
"For the first time in history, Russia has been ousted from the UNESCO Executive Board. The era of Russian influence is over, and rightly so: Russian terrorists have no place at the head of significant international bodies. Russia’s international role will only continue to weaken," wrote the head of state.
Earlier, Ukraine had repeatedly called on UNESCO to exclude Russia from the Executive Council. The Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) made this request twice, in May 2022 and July 2023, emphasizing that Russian occupiers were destroying cultural heritage sites in Ukraine.
On November 10th, it was reported that, for the first time in history, a representative from Russia was not elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of the United Nations. Meanwhile, representatives from Australia, Mexico, South Africa, Romania, and the United States were elected to the court.
