Ukraine was elected a member of the UN Security Council for the next 2 years

At a meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), Ukraine was elected a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2016-2017.

177 out of 193 members of the organization voted for Ukraine. Ukraine's powers as a member of the Security Council will begin on January 1, 2016.

In addition to Ukraine, Senegal, Japan, Egypt and Uruguay have become non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The Security Council includes 15 countries. Only five of them are permanent members of the organization, who played a key role in the creation of the UN: Great Britain, China, Russia (as the legal successor of the USSR), the USA and France. They also have a veto power when voting.

The remaining ten places are renewed by half every year. Elections for non-permanent members take place every fall at the UN General Assembly. A candidate country must secure the support of two-thirds of the 193 UN member states by first going through the approval process in its regional groups: Asia-Pacific, African, Eastern European, Latin American and Western European and other states.