A clearly frustrated U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday night demanded Russia cease its invasion of Ukraine immediately, as Moscow continued to show scant regard for either the globalist body or its members’ condemnation.
The veteran Portuguese politician spoke after an emergency General Assembly session called for the withdrawal of all Russian troops. The resolution was entirely symbolic and is not legally binding nor enforceable at any level, AP reports.
The vote on the “Aggression against Ukraine” resolution was 141-5, with 35 abstentions. It was moved and approved under the shadow of Russia bombarding Ukraine’s second-largest city and besieging two important ports, all while a huge convoy of Russian military vehicles stood poised outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Guterres told reporters immediately after the vote of his demands: “The message of the General Assembly is loud and clear: End hostilities in Ukraine — now. Silence the guns — now. Open the door to dialogue and diplomacy — now.”
“We don’t have a moment to lose,” he said. “The brutal effects of the conflict are plain to see … It threatens to get much, much worse.”
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China was among the 35 countries which abstained in the vote, while just five — Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Belarus and of course Russia — voted against it.
The New York Times records U.S. President Joe Biden called the special session historic and a demonstration of “unprecedented global unity” despite it being totally ignored by the intended target.
“An overwhelming majority of the world recognizes that if we do not stand up to Putin’s Russia, it will only inflict further chaos and aggression on the world,” Biden said in a statement.
The resolution says Russia’s military operations in Ukraine “are on a scale that the international community has not seen in Europe in decades and that urgent action is needed to save this generation from the scourge of war.”
A refugee family sleeps in the train station after they arrived at the Hungarian border town of Zahony on a train that has come from Ukraine on March 03, 2032 in Zahony, Hungary. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
A woman uses her mobile phone as she rests in the bomb shelter of a maternity hospital on March 02, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russian forces continued their advance on the Ukrainian capital for the seventh day as the country’s invasion of its western neighbour goes on. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
It “urges the immediate peaceful resolution of the conflict” and reaffirms the assembly’s commitment “to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”
The measure also condemns “the Russian Federation’s decision to increase the readiness of its nuclear forces” — an issue raised by many U.N. members concerned about that prospect.
Before the vote, Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, told the assembly, “They have come to the Ukrainian soil, not only to kill some of us … they have come to deprive Ukraine of the very right to exist.” He said that “the crimes are so barbaric that it is difficult to comprehend.”
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Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia urged U.N. members to vote against the resolution, contending Western nations exerted “unprecedented pressure” with “open and cynical threats” to get support for the measure.
“This document will not allow us to end military activities. On the contrary, it could embolden Kyiv radicals and nationalists to continue to determine the policy of their country at any price,” Nebenzia warned.
Despite the combined condemnation of Guterres and the U.N., on Thursday morning Russia showed no intention of heeding the call to retreat as it continued to roll through Ukraine towards the capital Kyiv.
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