The United Nations General Assembly began debating on Monday whether to ask Russia to reverse course on annexing four Ukrainian regions – a discussion that comes as Moscow’s largest-scale missile strikes come as yet. for months has raised alarms in many international communities.
A special session of the council was scheduled ahead of Monday’s attack, but countries have spoken out about widespread attacks during Monday morning’s rush hour that left at least 14 people dead and many more. injured.
Ukrainian Ambassador Sergey Kyslytsya said some of his immediate relatives were locked in a residential building, unable to hide in a bomb shelter.
By launching rockets at civilians sleeping in their homes or at school children, Russia has proven once again that it is a state of terror that must be stopped by as strongly as possible.
Russia said it targeted military and energy facilities. But some rockets have hit civilian areas: parks, commuter minibuses, and more.
Russia said it was responding to what it called Saturday’s Ukraine “terrorist” attack on a key bridge, and Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council that Moscow had warned it would not be attacked. punishment for such an act.
He told reporters outside the room that the bridge was “civil infrastructure, critical infrastructure”.
Ukrainian officials have not confirmed that Kyiv was behind the bridge attack or other apparent vandalism but said they welcome Russia’s steps back in all territories it claims to annex.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply shocked” by the Russian attacks and spoke on Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Many countries were also disappointed in the bombardment. Turkish UN Ambassador Feridun Sinirlio─ƒlu, whose country helped broker a deal in July to get Ukraine and Russia grain exports flowing, called the attacks the attacks. Monday was “deeply disturbing and unacceptable.”
Costa Rican Ambassador Maritza Chan Valverde said the strikes showed “continuous and complete disregard for human rights, humanitarian law and international norms.”
Hours after the missile flew, the United Nations council met to consider the response to Russia’s deliberate attack on Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions last month.
The move follows a “referendum” orchestrated by the Kremlin that the Ukrainian and Western governments have rejected because of fake votes conducted on occupied land amid war and immigration. move.
A proposed rallying resolution would ask Moscow to “immediately and unconditionally cancel” its alleged annexations and urge all countries not to recognize them. The measure, led by the European Union, would also require the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces from all internationally recognized Ukrainian territory.
The Russian ambassador criticized the debate as a one-sided exercise aimed at promoting an anti-Russian narrative.
“The mockery, confrontation and polarization are as dangerous today as we have never seen in the history of the United Nations,” Nebenzia said. He reiterated his country’s claim that the “referendum” was valid and that Moscow was working to “protect” people in the region against what the Kremlin sees as a hostile government of Ukraine.
Dozens of countries from Latvia to Fiji contested the resolution on Monday, some speaking through regional organisations. The debate will continue on Wednesday, and Russian friends like Syria and North Korea are among the countries that have signed up to speak.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in response to a question on Monday in Australia, declined to say what his country thinks about the measure.
The full 193-member council is expected to vote on Wednesday or later. Russia wanted a secret ballot, an unusual move that the council rejected, 107-13, by 39 abstentions. Russian bids to reconsider the idea of secret ballot were voted down.
Russia recently vetoed a similar UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned the alleged mergers. Under a decision made earlier this year, the Security Council’s veto powers must now be interpreted in the General Assembly.
The Council does not allow veto, but its resolutions are not legally binding, like Security Council resolutions. During the war, the council voted to ask Russia to stop the attacks, blame Moscow for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and suspend Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Meanwhile, there has been an impasse in the Security Council, where Russia is among the five countries with veto power.
