As the 193-member General Assembly gathers on Thursday, February 23 ahead of a vote that the US says would “go down in history,” UN Secretary General António Guterres has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “affront to our common conscience.”
Guterres termed the anniversary of Moscow’s strike “a tragic milestone for the people of Ukraine and the international community” during a special session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, February 22. While combat in Ukraine continues, displacing millions, affecting global energy and food prices, and resulting in the lives of over 200,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.
On Wednesday the UN general assembly debated a motion backed by Kyiv and its allies calling for a “just and lasting peace.”
US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the resolution calls on member states to support diplomacy and a comprehensive and lasting peace in Ukraine.
“This vote will go down in history. We will see where all nations stand on the matter of peace in Ukraine,” she said.
Almost 60 countries have signed on to the resolution, which emphasizes “the need to achieve, as quickly as possible, a comprehensive, just, and enduring peace in Ukraine in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter.”
It reiterates the UN’s “support to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity” and demands an immediate cease of hostilities.
It further asks that Russia “withdraw all of its military forces from Ukrainian territory immediately, entirely, and unconditionally.”
The Ukrainian government hopes that the new resolution would receive the backing of at least as many countries as the previous one did in October, when 143 countries voted to condemn Russia’s declared annexation of numerous Ukrainian territory.
China, India, and more than 30 other countries have previously abstained from UN votes in favor of Ukraine.
Guterres emphasized the global consequences of Russia’s incursion in his opening remarks. He stated that it has resulted in eight million refugees and has harmed global food and energy supply in countries far from the conflict zone.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told delegates that they faced a “decisive moment.”
“Never in recent history has the line between good and evil been so clear. One country merely wants to live. The other wants to kill and destroy,” he said.
More than 80 countries are slated to address the general assembly, which will vote on the draft resolution on Ukraine on Thursday or Friday.
As the debate began, Russia’s UN envoy, Vasily Nebenzia, referred to Ukraine as “neo-Nazi” and accused the West of sacrificing the country and the developing world in order to defeat Russia.
“They are ready to plunge the entire world into the abyss of war,” Nebenzia said, adding that the US and its allies wanted to shore up their own “hegemony.”
But European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell rejected that.
“I want to stress it: this war is not a ‘European issue’. Nor is it about ‘the west versus Russia’,” Borrell told the general assembly.
“No, this illegal war concerns everyone: the north, the south, the east and the west,” he said.