The UN General Assembly approved this Monday (10) that the vote on a resolution on Russian annexations in Ukraine to be held this week be public, not secret, as Moscow intended.
By a score of 193 votes in favor, 13 against and 193 abstentions, the General Assembly adopted a decision proposed by Albania that the vote should record how each country votes, as usual.
Russia, however, had proposed that the vote be secret, arguing that the United States and its allies are exerting “enormous pressure” on other countries, preventing them from expressing themselves freely.
The draft resolution to be voted on by the General Assembly condemns the organization, on the part of of Russia, of “illegal referendums” in the Ukrainian regions that ended up being annexed, and declares that attempts to seize these territories “have no validity under international law”.
The project is very similar to another that Russia sia recently vetoed it in the UN Security Council. He demands that Moscow reverse its actions on the status of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
Faced with the veto in the Security Council, Kyiv and its allies chose to go to the General Assembly, where no country can veto a resolution.
Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, repeated the argument that his country is acting in Ukraine in defense of a population whose rights are being trampled underfoot and guaranteed that the referendums were held with all guarantees.
Nebenzya also claimed that these movements do not violate international law, contrary to what he stated, among others, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
The Russian representative also accused the Western powers of double standards for accepting in the past the segregation of Kosovo and now opposing the division of the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson and their annexation to Russia.
The General Assembly – which brings together all 193 UN member countries – reopened its special emergency session on the war in Ukraine on Monday to begin debating the issue. .
With dozens of countries signed up to speak, diplomatic sources expect the resolution not to be voted on before Wednesday (12).
