UN General Assembly overwhelmingly deplores Russian invasion of Ukraine

The United Nations General Assembly adopted this Wednesday by an overwhelming majority a resolution to demand that Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine and “deplore” the aggression inflicted on its neighboring countries.

With 141 votes in favor, 5 against (Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria) and 35 abstentions (China, Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua or Pakistan, among others). ) the non-binding resolution was approved.

The text “deplores in the strongest terms the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine” in violation of article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations, which prohibits its members from resorting to the threat or use of force and urges all members to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of any Condition.

“The General Assembly’s message is loud and clear”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters. “End hostilities in Ukraine, now. Open the door to dialogue and diplomacy, now”, he added.

According to the representative of the European Union, Olof Skoog, “Russia has opted for aggression. the world for peace”. The historic vote on a resolution of the UN General Assembly was called after the failure of the body’s Security Council, last Friday, to approve a similar resolution due to Russia’s veto.

This result shows theisolation” of Russia and that the “world is with Ukraine”, concluded Skoog.

From the UN gallery, the Ukrainian ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, one of the last to speak from a list of nearly 120 speakers, accused the “criminal regime” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, of wanting to perpetrate genocide in his country.

“Genocide”

“It is already clear that Russia’s goal is not just occupation. It’s a genocide”, said the ambassador, before denouncing that the Russians “have come to deprive Ukraine of the very right to exist”.

The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who called the conflict “unfair and unnecessary”, he denounced that Russia is “preparing an increase in the brutality of its campaign against Ukraine”.

“We have seen videos of Russian forces transporting exceptionally lethal weapons, which have no place on the battlefield, including cluster bombs and vacuum bombs,” prohibited by the Geneva Convention, he said.

The text, promoted by European countries and Ukraine, and co-sponsored by nearly a hundred countries from all regions of the world, has undergone numerous changes over the last few days in order to reach a minimum agreement acceptable to the most recalcitrant.

Most speakers unequivocally condemned war, insecurity and the risks of escalating conflict in a world that was beginning to recover from the devastating ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, as evidenced by soaring commodity prices. , in particular gas, oil, nickel or aluminium, which can further fuel inflation.

“self defense”

Russia has repeated like a mantra that it has acted in “self defense” and that their targets are not civilians, despite the results on the ground.

More than 874,000 Ukrainians have been forced to leave the country in search of a safe place, according to the UN, and more than 2,000 civilians have lost their lives, according to the Ukrainian authorities, since last February 24, when it began “special military operation”, as Russia has called it.

Europe and the United States have adopted a barrage of sanctions aimed at isolating Russia and suffocating its economy so that it cannot finance the war, in what the representative of Belarus, one of Moscow’s most faithful allies, called “economic terrorism” in the UN tribune.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday in his annual State of the Union address that Putin underestimated the response of Western countries with his decision to invade Ukraine.

“He rejected attempts at diplomacy. He thought that the West and NATO would not respond. And he thought that he could divide us internally. Putin was wrong. we were readyBiden said.