United Nations, Oct. 11. The UN General Assembly will on Wednesday vote on a resolution condemning Russian attempts to annex Ukrainian territories, a move Kyiv and its allies are trying to use to expose the illegality of these maneuvers and isolate Moscow diplomatically.
The 193 member states of the United Nations started debate on the issue on Monday and, after a break today, are expected to conclude it tomorrow and resume voting, a spokeswoman for the organization confirmed.
The draft resolution, drafted by the European Union (EU), which already has nearly 70 co-backing countries, “condemns the Russian Federation’s organization of allegedly illegal referendums” in Ukrainian regions and states that attempts to annex these territories “condemned none validity under international law”.
It also demands that Moscow reverse its measures on the status of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson Oblasts and demands that it immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
European diplomatic sources expect the text to be adopted, and now the big question is how many countries will vote ‘no’ along with Russia and how many will abstain.
In recent days, the EU and the United States have been trying to garner as much support as possible for the project in order to highlight Russia’s loneliness on the international stage.
As the next precedent of this vote, when the General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the Russian invasion in March, only four states apart from Moscow voted against it: Syria, Belarus, North Korea and Eritrea.
Then 35 countries decided to abstain, including heavyweights like China, India, Iran or South Africa and several Latin American nations like Cuba, Bolivia, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
When the UN General Assembly condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the resolution was backed by 100 countries, while 11 voted against and 58 abstained, and Western powers are now hoping they can achieve a slightly better outcome.
Russia wanted to keep tomorrow’s vote secret, arguing that the United States and its allies would put pressure on other countries and allow everyone to speak out freely, but its proposal was defeated by a clear majority on Monday.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield today assured journalists that Washington is not trying to intimidate anyone into voting for it, but instead is insisting to all countries that the resolution is intended solely to protect the United Nations Charter.
“This is an attack on the values we all stand for. This is not a competition between Russia and the United States. It’s not about choosing a side, it’s about defending Ukraine’s right to exist,” stressed the diplomat.
The issue of referenda held in partially occupied areas of Ukraine and their annexation by Russia comes to the General Assembly after Moscow vetoed a similar resolution tabled by the United States and Albania in the Security Council.
For Washington, the vote is even more important following Monday’s attacks by Russian troops on cities across Ukraine, offering countries an even clearer choice.
“The stakes are even more obvious. This is not a time for appeasement, this is a time for action,” the US Ambassador said today.