China, India and Pakistan abstain: UNGA demands Russia withdraw from Ukraine

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that “demands” Russia “immediately” withdraw from Ukraine, in a powerful rebuke of Moscow’s invasion by a vast majority of the world’s nations.

After more than two days of extraordinary debate which saw the Ukrainian ambassador accuse Russia of genocide, 141 out of 193 member states voted for the non-binding resolution. China was among the 35 countries which abstained, while just five — Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Belarus and of course Russia — voted against it.

Japan and New Zealand led condemnation from Asia, but the continent’s giants — China, India and Pakistan — all abstained. During the debate Beijing had stressed the world had “nothing to gain” from a new Cold War.

The resolution “deplores” the invasion of Ukraine “in the strongest terms” and condemns President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put his nuclear forces on alert. The vote had been touted by diplomats as a bellwether of democracy in a world where autocracy is on the rise in countries from Myanmar to Venezuela, and came as Putin’s forces bear down on Kyiv while terrified Ukrainians flee.

“They have come to deprive Ukraine of the very right to exist,” Ukraine’s ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told the Assembly ahead of the vote. “It’s already clear that the goal of Russia is not an occupation only. It is genocide.”

Isolated Russia defends Ukraine war at UN General Assembly

Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Moscow has pleaded “self-defense” under Article 51 of the UN Charter. But that has been roundly rejected by Western countries who accuse Moscow of violating Article 2 of the Charter, requiring UN members to refrain from the threat or use of force to resolve a crisis.

The text of the resolution — led by European countries in coordination with Ukraine — has undergone numerous changes in recent days. It no longer “condemns” the invasion as initially expected, but instead “deplores in the strongest terms the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine.”

It also makes clear the United Nations is “condemning” Putin’s decision to put his nuclear forces on alert, a move that ignited an immediate outcry from the West. Nearly every General Assembly speaker unreservedly condemned the war and the risks of military escalation.

“If the United Nations has any purpose, it is to prevent war,” the US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said during her speech on Wednesday. She accused Russia of “preparing to increase the brutality of its campaign.” “We’ve seen videos of Russian forces moving exceptionally lethal weaponry into Ukraine, which has no place on the battlefield that includes cluster munitions and vacuum bombs, which are banned under the Geneva Convention,” Thomas-Greenfield said. Russia’s ally Belarus offered a staunch defence of the invasion, however.