UN General Assembly demands “immediate” withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine

UN General Assembly demands “immediate” withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

A General Assembly resolution calling for a “ceasefire” in Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russian troops received a total of 141 votes for and 7 against this Thursday, while 32 countries abstained.

The resolution was eventually co-sponsored by 75 countries, including the European Union, the United States, and several Latin American countries (Chile, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay).

The decision is very similar to the votes to end the war in Ukraine last March and last October, and the countries that voted against this Thursday – as then – are staunch allies of Russia in the world: Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Mali, Nicaragua and Syria.

China, India, South Africa, Cuba and most African countries also abstained.

During the two days of interventions, several countries repeated common calls for peace and the start of negotiations, but the European Union’s high representative for foreign policy, Joseph Borrell, said the calls were the result of “naïveté”. “Russia has not sent even the slightest sign that it wants peace,” he insisted.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Alvarez said on Wednesday that the Europeans, who supported the resolution with Ukraine from the start, warned that a no-vote would not work because it would immediately be seen as a position in Russia’s favor.

The resolution’s central point is the fifth, which calls on Russia to “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its military forces from Ukrainian territory” and then call for a “ceasefire”.

While it called for support for “diplomatic efforts to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, it stressed the need for “accountability and prosecution of the most serious crimes under international law (…) at the national and international level”, it said. Criticized by countries.

The resolution was initiated by Ukraine and immediately sponsored by the European Union, and 75 countries joined it. At first it included the so-called “Zelenski peace plan”, but it was withdrawn in favor of more diplomatic or less “anti-Russian” terms, European sources explained to EFE.

This Thursday’s result was very close to last October 12, in the vote of the assembly after the annexation vote of four Ukrainian provinces: then 143 countries voted against the annexation, 5 against (Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua and Syria) and 38 did not vote, among them Most are African or Asian.

The result was even larger than that reached on March 24, a month after the invasion: 140 countries supported the resolution, which called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities”, 5 countries voted against (Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria) and 38 abstained.

Resorting to the General Assembly (although its resolutions were symbolic) was weighed down by Russia’s veto power, which prevented a resolution from being ratified, due to the ineffectiveness of the Security Council since the beginning of the war. (Which is mandatory in your case).