UNITED NATIONS – The UN General Assembly has demanded an immediate halt to the Russian provoked war and its troops’ withdrawal from Ukraine in an emergency meeting on Wednesday that broke out in applause after witnessing firm support from all 193 members, ABC reported.
“In historic “Uniting for Peace” session, #UNGA adopts resolution demanding that the Russian Federation immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine and withdraw its military forces.”, UN Tweeted.
“The vote on the ‘Aggression against Ukraine’ resolution was 141-5, with 35 abstentions”, ABC News reported. The meeting took place following Russians taking control of Ukraine’s largest city, besieging two main ports and forging forward a 40-mile convoy from the outskirts of Kyiv.
With only a few nations like Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria joining the invading country in opposing the measure, it is pretty clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being internationally isolated for warring with their small neighboring country.
The abstention during the meeting was from India and China, of course, and surprisingly from some strong Russian allies, Nicaragua and Cuba. The UAE, which abstained during the Security Council resolution on Friday, voted “Yes”.
In Tuesday’s meeting, Cuba spoke in Russia’s defense, with Ambassador Pedro Luis Cuesta inculpating the growing crisis on the “U.S. determination to keep expanding NATO toward Russia’s borders and on the delivery of modern weapons to Ukraine, ignoring Russia’s concerns for its own security”.
He further addressed the assembly saying, the resolution “suffers from lack of balance and doesn’t begin to address the concerns of both parties, or the responsibility of those who took aggressive actions which precipitated the escalation of this conflict.”
While General Assembly resolutions have no legal binding, they do have the power to reflect international opinion. A resolution under special emergency meeting rules requires the approval of at least two-thirds of those nations, and abstentions don’t happen.
The US president Joe Biden called the emergency and special session “historic and a demonstration of unprecedented global unity.”
“An overwhelming majority of the world recognizes that if we do not stand up to Putin’s Russia, it will only inflict further chaos and aggression on the world,” said Biden in a recent statement.
After Russia turned down Friday’s similar Security Council, Ukraine and its allies won approval to hold an emergency session to highlight the Russian invasion’s opposition.
The measures taken in the emergency meeting demand an immediate halt to Russia’s invasion and complete withdrawal of its troops from Ukraine.
According to the resolution, “Russia’s military operations in Ukraine are on a scale that the international community has not seen in Europe in decades and that urgent action is needed to save this generation from the scourge of war.”
It “‘urges the immediate peaceful resolution of the conflict’ and reaffirms the assembly’s commitment ‘to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders’”.
