The General Assembly adopted an overwhelming majority, Wednesday, March 2, a resolution requiring Russia to stop hostilities in Ukraine. A historical vote to show the isolation of the Kremlin and accentuate diplomatic pressure.
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Seven days after the triggering of the war in Ukraine, Russia of Vladimir Putin was put to the ban of the international community Wednesday, March 2 in New York, when adopting the resolution “Aggression against Ukraine” . The text asks Moscow to “cease to resort to force in Ukraine” and condemns its decision “to emphasize the alertness of its nuclear forces”. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, where all Member States are represented, in order to circumvent the veto imposed by Russia to the Security Council six days earlier.
The vote, which was held after two and a half days of speech, lasted less than a minute; The results were immediately displayed on the giant screens of the hemicycle: 141 countries, out of 193 members, approved the resolution five opposed and 35, of which China, abstained. The confirmed result, a large majority of diplomats got up and applauded a vote that many qualify for “historic”.
“The message of the General Assembly is strong and clear,” reacted Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the end of the vote. “End hostilities in Ukraine – now. Open the door to dialogue and diplomacy – now.”
“Putin does not just attack Ukraine”
“An immense majority of nations recognize that Putin does not just attack Ukraine, but also the very foundations of peace and security in the world,” said US President Joe Biden into a statement. “The international community has shown its unity,” said Emmanuel Macron, during a television intervention devoted to the conflict.
Russia has appeared more isolated in 2014, during a conviction similar to the UN General Assembly for the annexation of Crimea: instead of the ten countries that had voted in its favor. Only four dictatorships did it yesterday – Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea. “The Russia of Vladimir Putin enters the club of the worst pariah”, analyzes a European diplomat, which emphasizes that such mobilization is very rare for this type of resolution “pointing a country”. For him, “the brutality in which the events took place in the last ten days reacted, even the most geographically distant countries of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin certainly underestimated the power of social networks”.
Show the isolation of Russia is crucial in the Western Strategy. Although this resolution does not have a binding value, unlike those voted by the Security Council, diplomats rely on its symbolic value and the pressure it could exercise on the holding of talks for an uncertain ceasefire. The Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslysya, denounced to the UN platform a “genocide” in progress in his country, perpetrated by Russia.
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