UNITED NATIONS, United States – In his State of the Union speech, US President Joe Biden took aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that the Kremlin leader had grossly misread the course of events and that "he has no clue what's coming." Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously "demands" that Russia leave from Ukraine "immediately."
The United States General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on Wednesday that "demands" Russia "immediately" withdraw from Ukraine, in a strong rebuke to Moscow's invasion by the great majority of the world's nations.
Following a two-day marathon discussion in which the Ukrainian ambassador accused Russia of genocide, 141 of the 193 UN member states voted in favour of the non-binding resolution.
China was one of 35 nations that abstained, with just five
voting against it: Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Belarus, and, of course,
Russia. The resolution "strongly condemns" the invasion of Ukraine
and President Vladimir Puti's decision to put his nuclear forces on high alert.
Diplomats hailed the vote as a harbinger of democracy in an age when despotism is on the increase, and it came as Putin's forces pressed their assault on Kyiv, sending scared Ukrainians fleeing. Before the voting, Ukraine's envoy Sergiy Kyslytsya warned the Assembly, "They have come to rob Ukraine of its basic right to exist."
"It is already evident that Russia's purpose is not
only to occupy. It's a form of genocide." On February 24, Putin started a
full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Under UN Charter Article 51, Moscow has claimed
"self-defense."
Western nations, on the other hand, have accused Moscow of breaking Article 2 of the UN Charter, which prohibits members of the UN from threatening or using force to resolve a crisis.
Olof Skoog, the European Union's UN ambassador, said the vote was "not only about Ukraine."
In a statement, he added, "It's about protecting an international system founded on norms we've all agreed to."
The General Assembly's message was "loud and
clear," according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"Stop the fighting in Ukraine right now. Now is the time to put the weapons down "In a statement, he stated. "As terrible as things are for the people of Ukraine right now, they are about to get a lot worse. The ticking of the clock is a ticking time bomb."
The resolution's language, which was drafted by European nations in collaboration with Ukraine, has undergone multiple revisions in recent days.
It no longer "condemns" the invasion, as had been expected, but instead "strongly condemns Russian Federation action against Ukraine."
Almost every speaker in the General Assembly denounced the war unequivocally.
During her remarks, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
stated, "If the United Nations has any function, it is to avert
conflict."
Belarus, a Russian ally, stood firm in its opposition to the invasion. The sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, according to Ambassador Valentin Rybakov, are "the greatest example of economic and financial terrorism."
He also joined other Russian allies like Syria in denouncing the "double standards" of Western countries that had attacked countries like Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan in recent decades.
Others expressed concerns about a domino effect if Ukraine
fell to Russia. Colombia protested any return to "imperial," while
Albania asked aloud, "Who would be next?" Kuwait, which had been
invaded by Iraq in 1990, was the Arab country that made the most strident
criticism of Moscow.
Asia's leaders, Japan and New Zealand, led the censure, but the continent's behemoths, China, India, and Pakistan, all abstained. During the discussion, Beijing emphasised that a new Cold War would benefit "no one."
On the fringes of the summit, Washington has targeted
Russian UN employees, accusing them of spying and seeking their removal. In his
State of the Union speech on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said that Putin
had misjudged the response to the incursion.