Posted on 10/13/2022 7:53:07 AM PDT by Salohcin
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly condemned Russia's "attempted illegal annexation" of four partially occupied regions in Ukraine and called on all countries not to recognize the move, strengthening a diplomatic international isolation of Moscow since it invaded its neighbor.
Three-quarters of the 193-member General Assembly - 143 countries - voted in favor of a resolution that also reaffirmed the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
"It's amazing," Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters after the vote as he stood next to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who said the result showed Russia could not intimidate the world.
Only four countries joined Russia in voting against the resolution - Syria, Nicaragua, North Korea and Belarus. [Emphasis added] Thirty-five countries abstained from the vote, including Russia's strategic partner China, while the rest did not vote.
"Today it is Russia invading Ukraine. But tomorrow it could be another nation whose territory is violated. It could be you. You could be next. What would you expect from this chamber?" Thomas-Greenfield told the General Assembly before the vote.
Moscow in September proclaimed its annexation of four partially occupied regions in Ukraine - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - after staging what it called referendums. Ukraine and allies have denounced the votes as illegal and coercive.
The General Assembly vote followed a veto by Russia last month of a similar resolution in the 15-member Security Council.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the General Assembly ahead of the vote that the resolution was "politicized and openly provocative," adding that it "could destroy any and all efforts in favor of a diplomatic solution to the crisis."
'DOUBLE STANDARDS'
The moves at the United Nations mirror what happened in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea. The General Assembly then adopted a resolution declaring the referendum invalid with 100 votes in favor, 11 against and 58 formal abstentions.
China abstained on Wednesday because it did not believe the resolution will be helpful, China's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Geng Shuang said.
"Any action taken by the General Assembly should be conducive to the de-escalation of the situation, to be conducive to the early resumption of dialogue and should be conducive to the promotion of a political solution to this crisis," he said.
The United States and other Western countries lobbied ahead of Wednesday's vote. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken convened a virtual meeting on Tuesday with diplomats from more than 100 countries.
They won dozens more votes than compared with the 2014 result, and improved on the 141 countries who voted to denounce Russia and demand it withdraw its troops from Ukraine within a week of its Feb. 24 invasion.
Moscow has then been trying to chip away at its international isolation. As Russia and the West have vied for diplomatic influence, some states - particularly in the global South - have grown concerned about paying the price for being squeezed in the middle of an intense geopolitical rivalry.
"We deplore the politics of the double standards of the powerful of this world when it comes to Africa," Democratic Republic of Congo U.N. Ambassador Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja told the General Assembly on Wednesday.
"We support Ukraine. We want to see the war ended," he said. "But we would like to see the international community take similar action against other situations in the world where countries are being invaded and occupied."
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Costas Pitas and Grant McCool)
“Ukraine isn’t, and has never been, our ally.”
Neither was the Soviet Union; yet, we armed it and supplied it in WWII.
These things are never in stark black and white; they are almost always in varying shades of gray.
????? You really don’t know how the UN works, do you? Even if you weight the votes by population (which the UN doesn’t) the resolution would have passed overwhelmingly. There’s no parliamentary voting system that allows you to add the “abstains” to the no votes. Only the for and against votes count. It’s hilarious that you are attempting to add China’s abstaining to your side. It has to be a real humiliation when even China won’t support your sham referendums.
Wow! That's EXACTLY what the Left and DNCMedia say to conservatives concerning the 2020 election steal!
“Um, the resolution failed. Countries comprising half the world’s population either voted against the resolution or to abstain.”
It passed. Only five countries opposed it (including Russia). Abstentions are a coward’s way out: They decline to publicly take a position one way or the other, because they are afraid. The questions is: Of whom are they afraid? Usually, they are afraid of damage to their reputation and credibility if their vote ultimately goes against the judgment of history.
“Um, the resolution failed. Countries comprising half the world’s population either voted against the resolution or to abstain.”
It passed. Only five countries opposed it (including Russia). Abstentions are a coward’s way out: They decline to publicly take a position one way or the other, because they are afraid. The question is: Of whom are they afraid? Usually, they are afraid of damage to their reputation and credibility if their vote ultimately goes against the judgment of history.
UN is Much bigger money pit than even the Ukraine which is already the most currupt country in Europe. Just ask Hunter how many millions he got from Ukraine for “expertise” in energy production.
To start with, the very fact they were in Ukraine conducting referenda. These are as legitimate as Mexico’s would be if they were to militarily invade Southern California and do their own on whether Southern California wanted to join Mexico.
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...or as legitimate as if the US invaded Iraq and then created a US-approved democracy.
It shouldn’t need American resources or UK resources... It should’ve been a matter for Russia to discuss with Ukraine.
It was only because of Putin’s insistence that we all got dragged into it (because he made the whole thing about NATO CONTRACTION in December). Every ultimatum was to NATO, not to Ukraine.
The minute Russia put boots into Ukraine, though, it violated its own undertakings within the Budapest Memorandum.
Under the terms of the Memorandum Ukraine was empowered to call on assistance from the other signatories - Belarus, USA and UK.
Under the terms of the Memorandum, it would’ve harmed us diplomatically if we’d refused to do anything at all. But once it became clear that the vast majority of the United Nations would rather support the Charter principles than endorse Russian violation of them, we had the moral authority to support Ukraine DEFENSIVELY. Not at any point have we encouraged Ukraine or anybody else to attack Russia, we’ve simply enabled Ukraine to defend itself.
“These things are never in stark black and white; they are almost always in varying shades of gray.”
I absolutely agree with that. That is almost completely not what’s happening on our UKR v RUS threads.
Doesn’t matter how big the countries are demographically - each UNGA vote represents the diplomatic view of each nation in relation to the motion in question, not an assessment of the will of their people.
It’s clear that most European countries are suffering economically because of the war and many have a high percentage of people who want the war to end, but that wasn’t the question put to the UNGA.
The question was, in essence, does Russia’s annexation have legitimacy, and the answer was a resounding no.
Not that Russia cares.
The US and pro-Ukrainian pundits are trumpeting a UN vote.
On other days, they just ignores them:
“U.N. Votes Overwhelmingly To Condemn U.S. Decision On Jerusalem”
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/21/572565091/u-n-votes-overwhelmingly-to-condemn-trumps-jerusalem-decision
“UN General Assembly calls for US to end Cuba embargo for 29th consecutive year”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094612
“Iraq war was illegal and breached UN charter, says Annan”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/16/iraq.iraq
“US violating UNSC resolutions instead of abiding by them”
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/161231/US-violating-UNSC-resolutions-instead-of-abiding-by-them
It’s amazing how you keep bringing up these non sequiturs. The point is that Russia is isolated on the issue of its referendums and annexations.
Let the truth and facts speak for itself.
UN is irrelevant, period.
I agree that the UN as an institution has proven itself to be irrelevant, but the vote did expose how isolated Russia is if the only countries supporting it are Belarus, Nicaragua, North Korea, and Syria.
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