Russia took over the presidency of the United Nations Security Council on Saturday, more than a year after invading Ukraine and starting a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and devastated cities. 

The last time Russia held the post was in February 2022, when Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters. The presidency of the UN Security Council is rotating, meaning that each of the organization's 15 members takes office for a month.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has already reacted to Russia's leadership of the Security Council presidency and launched harsh criticism.

"Unfortunately, we are receiving absurd and devastating news. Today [Saturday], a terrorist state has taken its seat on the United Nations Security Council. Yesterday [Friday], the Russian army killed a Ukrainian child, a five-month-old baby called Danylo. He was from Avdiivka, in the Donbass, where he lived with his parents. It was an artillery attack, one of hundreds of other attacks that this terrorist state carries out every day. At the same time, Russia has a seat on the UN Security Council. This proves the bankruptcy of these institutions," lamented Zelensky.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, also commented on the matter, pointing out that this is a "reminder that something is wrong with the way the international security architecture is working", he wrote on the social network Twitter, quoted by Correio da Manhã (CM).