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The UN Common Meeting on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a decision that “calls for” Russia “instantly” withdraw from Ukraine, in a strong rebuke of Moscow’s invasion by a overwhelming majority of the world’s nations, stories AFP.
After greater than two days of extraordinary debate, which noticed the Ukrainian ambassador accuse Russia of genocide, 141 out of 193 United Nations member states voted for the non-binding decision.
“The world is rejecting Russia’s lies,” US President Joe Biden mentioned in a press release later Wednesday. “Russia is chargeable for the devastating abuses of human rights and the worldwide humanitarian disaster that we’re watching unfold in Ukraine in actual time.”
China was among the many 35 nations which abstained, whereas simply 5 — Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Belarus and naturally Russia — voted towards it.
The decision “deplores” the invasion of Ukraine “within the strongest phrases” and condemns President Vladimir Putin’s choice to place his nuclear forces on alert.
The vote had been touted by diplomats as a bellwether of democracy in a world the place autocracy is on the rise, and got here as Putin’s forces bear down on Kyiv whereas terrified Ukrainians flee.
“They’ve come to deprive Ukraine of the very proper to exist,” Ukraine’s ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya instructed the Meeting forward of the vote.
“It is already clear that the aim of Russia is just not an occupation solely. It’s genocide.”
Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Moscow has pleaded “self-defense” underneath Article 51 of the UN Constitution.
However that has been roundly rejected by Western nations who accuse Moscow of violating Article 2 of the Constitution, requiring UN members to chorus from the menace or use of pressure to resolve a disaster.
The European Union’s ambassador to the UN Olof Skoog mentioned the vote was “not nearly Ukraine.”
“It’s about defending a world order based mostly on guidelines all of us have signed as much as,” he mentioned in a press release.
UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres mentioned the Common Meeting’s message was “loud and clear.”
“Finish hostilities in Ukraine — now. Silence the weapons — now,” he mentioned in a press release.
“As unhealthy because the scenario is for the folks in Ukraine proper now, it threatens to get a lot, a lot worse. The ticking clock is a time bomb.”
Some delegations selected to position stuffed animals on their tables in the course of the session — a stark visible reminder of the battle’s devastating impression on kids.
– ‘Who can be subsequent?’ –
The textual content of the decision — led by European nations in coordination with Ukraine — has undergone quite a few modifications in current days.
It now not “condemns” the invasion as initially anticipated, however as an alternative “deplores within the strongest phrases the Russian Federation’s aggression towards Ukraine.”
Almost each Common Meeting speaker unreservedly condemned the battle.
“If the United Nations has any function, it’s to forestall battle,” the US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, mentioned throughout her speech on Wednesday.
She accused Russia of “making ready to extend the brutality of its marketing campaign.”
“We have seen movies of Russian forces shifting exceptionally deadly weaponry into Ukraine, which has no place on the battlefield. That features cluster munitions and vacuum bombs, that are banned underneath the Geneva Conference,” Thomas-Greenfield mentioned.
Russia’s ally Belarus provided a staunch protection of the invasion, nevertheless.
Ambassador Valentin Rybakov blasted sanctions imposed by the West on Russia as “the worst instance of financial and monetary terrorism.”
And he adopted different Russian allies resembling Syria in condemning the “double requirements” of Western nations who’ve invaded nations together with Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan in current many years.
Different audio system cited fears of a domino impact ought to Ukraine fall to Russia. Colombia railed towards any return to “empire,” whereas Albania puzzled: “Who can be subsequent?”
From the Arab world it was Kuwait, itself the sufferer of an invasion by Iraq in 1990, whose denunciation of Moscow was essentially the most specific.
– China, India abstain –
Japan and New Zealand led condemnation from Asia, however the continent’s giants — China, India and Pakistan — all abstained. Throughout the debate Beijing had careworn the world had “nothing to realize” from a brand new Chilly Warfare.
On the assembly’s sidelines, Washington has taken goal at Russians working on the United Nations, leveling accusations of espionage and demanding expulsions.
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