UN General Assembly Demands Russia End Ukraine War
Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya, speaks for the duration of a Standard Assembly Emergency Distinctive Session on Ukraine at the United Nations in New York on March 23, 2022
TIMOTHY A. CLARY
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The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday adopted by an frustrating vast majority a non-binding resolution that requires an instant halt to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
At the worldwide body’s headquarters in New York, 140 countries voted in favor, 38 abstained and just 5 opposed the evaluate, with applause ringing out afterward.
The vote came after the adoption of a very similar non-binding resolution on March 2 that demanded Russia quickly cease its use of pressure — a vote that was approved by practically the identical margin.
Ukraine put forward the new resolution, originally prepared by France and Mexico and addressing the “humanitarian consequences” of Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor, on Wednesday at an crisis session of the Basic Assembly.
A competing text by South Africa, which never mentioned Russia by name, received 50 votes for, 67 towards and 36 abstentions, and was therefore not adopted.
The approved resolution names Moscow and “needs an immediate cessation of the hostilities by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, in distinct of any assaults versus civilians and civilian objects.”
The same five countries voted from the resolution Thursday and March 2: Russia, Syria, North Korea, Belarus and Eritrea.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, welcomed the “sturdy bulk” supporting the resolution.
The countries designed clear that “Russia bears sole obligation for the grave humanitarian crisis and violence in Ukraine,” she said.
“As President Biden has stated clearly, (Russia’s president) Vladimir Putin will not see victory in Ukraine. And we heard right now that he will not see it right here in New York both.”
France’s UN envoy Nicolas de Riviere, speaking on behalf of the European Union, praised the resolution as a “quite sturdy signal” despatched by the Standard Assembly which “recollects the urgency of putting an conclusion to the humanitarian disaster” and which asks Russia to halt its aggression devoid of hold off.
President Joe Biden and his Western counterparts collected Thursday in Brussels for NATO, G7 and EU summits, with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky also taking part by videolink.
On Wednesday Russia submitted a resolution to the UN Protection Council on the “humanitarian predicament” in Ukraine, but it was not adopted.
Moscow ally China, which has nonetheless to condemn the invasion, joined Russia in voting in favor. But the Protection Council’s 13 other member states pointedly abstained in solidarity more than what diplomats claimed was the text’s unacceptable foundation.
Previously this week UN Secretary Common Antonio Guterres shipped a slicing assessment of the invasion, contacting the war “unwinnable” for Russia.
