The UN General Assembly on Wednesday condemned with an “overwhelming” majority the Russian “illegal annexations” of Ukrainian territories, after Moscow vetoed a similar text in the Security Council at the end of September.
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The General Assembly of 193 Member States, meeting in emergency since Monday, adopted this resolution with 143 votes in favor, against five countries against and 35 who abstained, including China, India, Pakistan and South Africa. South, despite diplomatic efforts by the United States.
The five states that voted against are, unsurprisingly, Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Nicaragua.
With this text, co-drafted by the European Union and presented by Ukraine, Westerners claimed to have proven that President Vladimir Putin’s Russia was “isolated” on the international scene, seven months after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
The head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken was pleased in a press release to see “an overwhelming majority of nations at the side of Ukraine, in the defense of the UN charter and the resolute opposition to the war of the Russia against Ukraine and its people”.
Mr. Blinken stressed “that very few nations voted with Russia” and he welcomed the “international unity” and “unwavering support” for Kyiv.
The 143 countries that voted for the UN resolution signified that “they would not tolerate any attempt by a UN member state to seize territory by force,” insisted the American secretary of state.
“This Could Be You”
Before the vote, its UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield urged as many countries as possible not to abstain: “Today Russia is invading Ukraine. But tomorrow the territory of another nation could be violated. It could be you. You could be the next “country, launched the diplomat at the podium of the United Nations.
His French counterpart Nicolas de Rivière added: “By invading its neighbour, Russia has decided to open the way to other wars of annexation. What is happening today in Europe may be happening elsewhere tomorrow: in Asia, Africa, Latin America”.
And for the Briton Barbara Woodward, “Russia has failed on the battlefield and in the UN. (…) Russia has isolated itself. (…) We must now stop the war”.
The resolution “condemns the attempted illegal annexations” of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson after “so-called illegal referendums” and stresses that these actions have “no validity” under international law.
The text also calls for no state to recognize these annexations and calls for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine who entered on February 24.
The UN “demands that the Russian Federation immediately and unconditionally reconsider its decision of September 29” relating to the integration of Ukrainian regions into Russia. These annexations constitute a “violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine”.
On September 30, Moscow used its veto to block the same resolution in the Security Council condemning the annexations in Ukraine. Apart from the Russian veto, the text had collected 10 votes for out of the 15 members of the Council. China, India, Brazil and Gabon had abstained and the West had already touted proof of Russia’s isolation.
“Russia tried to silence the Security Council, but it could not silence the United Nations General Assembly,” European Union Ambassador to the UN Olof Skoog told reporters. after the vote.