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The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to denounce Russia’s military assault on Ukraine — the latest major diplomatic setback to President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch an “unprovoked” war in Eastern Europe.
In all, 141 countries supported the resolution, five nations voted against and 35 nations abstained. The resolution required support from two-thirds of the assembly to pass. Diplomats stood and applauded after the vote.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said members had spoken “loud and clear".
“The world wants an end to the tremendous human suffering in Ukraine,” he said. “End hostilities in Ukraine — now. Silence the guns — now. Open the door to dialogue and diplomacy — now.”
Before the vote, US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield blamed Mr Putin for an “unprovoked, unjustified, unconscionable war” and widespread suffering in Ukraine, where hundreds have died and millions are being uprooted.
“The truth is that this war was one man’s choice and one man alone: President Putin,” she said under the UN assembly hall's golden-domed roof.
“It was his choice to force hundreds of thousands of people to stuff their lives into backpacks and flee the country. To send newborn babies into makeshift bomb shelters. To make children with cancer huddle in hospital basements, interrupting their treatment, essentially sentencing them to death.”
Ukraine's UN ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya received a round of applause after addressing the chamber, holding up a copy of the UN Charter and saying members had a “duty” to vote for the resolution.
Russia's UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya accused western states of “unprecedented pressure” and “cynical threats” to influence the vote, saying it would not deter Russia from what he called a necessary military operation.
The resolution, a copy of which was obtained by The National, "condemns the 24 February 2022 declaration by the Russian Federation of a 'special military operation' in Ukraine," as well as the "decision of the Russian Federation to increase the readiness of its nuclear forces."
It also deplores Russia's recognition of pro-Kremlin breakaway regions and calls on Moscow to immediately halt aggression and withdraw its troops.
The UN assembly voted against a backdrop of spiralling chaos in Ukraine, with street fighting breaking out in its second city, Kharkiv, after Russian paratroopers landed amid a barrage of air strikes and shelling.
All 193 UN member states had a chance to speak at the three-day debate — making the event a barometer of global attitudes towards the invasion of Ukraine and the worst fighting Europe has seen in years.
It is only the 11th time in the UN's history that such an emergency session has been held following a Security Council veto. The last time involved Israel in 1982.
The session began with diplomats standing for one minute of silence to honour the victims of fighting in Ukraine, a country of about 44 million people, before assembly president Abdulla Shahid spoke, calling for “an immediate ceasefire”.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson before the vote called Mr Putin a war criminal for dropping bombs on “innocent civilians” and urged the UN’s wider membership to roundly condemn the invasion.
“We call on every nation to join us in condemning Russia and demanding that Putin turns his tanks around,” said Mr Johnson.
The meeting was the latest in a flurry of diplomacy at the UN. Russia on Friday vetoed a draft Security Council resolution that would have condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
China, the UAE and India abstained and the remaining 11 members voted yes.
The UAE on Wednesday voted to support the General Assembly resolution.
Lana Nusseibeh, the UN ambassador for the UAE, said Ukraine's conflict had reached a “dangerous inflection point”, that the vote result sent an important “signal” and called for more “dialogue and effective diplomacy” to end the crisis.
On Tuesday, Ms Nusseibeh said the UAE would be “flexible” in its diplomacy.
“This is not a one-position approach,” she said in regard to the Ukraine crisis.
Security Council resolutions are legally binding, but the body’s permanent members — Russia, the US, France, Britain and China — can quash them with a veto. Resolutions of the General Assembly are non-binding, but carry moral force and cannot be vetoed.
Mr Putin on February 24 launched a large-scale military assault into neighbouring Ukraine, deploying tens of thousands of troops across the country, backed by tanks, fighter jets and ships.
More than 836,000 people have fled Ukraine since Russia began what it called a “special military operation”, the UN's refugee agency says, and the number is growing steadily.
Russia has since become a global pariah as ordinary Ukrainians take up arms to defend their country. Moscow has been hit by a barrage of sanctions including a ban from western airspace and key financial networks.
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Damage after the shelling of buildings in central Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA -
Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tank obstacles to be placed on roads around Kyiv as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters -
Anti-war protesters attach sunflowers to barriers in front of the Russian embassy. Reuters -
Ukrainian volunteers prepare food for displaced people outside Lviv railway station in western Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier holds an anti-tank launcher north-east of Kyiv. AFP -
Ukrainian refugees rest at Warsaw East train station in Poland. EPA -
Children look out from a carriage window as a train prepares to depart from a station in Lviv to the town of Uzhhorod near the border with Slovakia. AFP -
A girl who fled Ukraine is reunited with her father in Medyka, south-eastern Poland. AP Photo -
Tears outside a house damaged by a Russian airstrike in Gorenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP Photo -
A civil defence member is poised to shoot as a vehicle approaches a checkpoint in Gorenka. AP Photo -
A Ukrainian civil defence member in the garden of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike. AP Photo -
Members of the US Army 3rd Infantry Division board a plane bound for Germany in Savannah, Georgia. EPA -
Prayers for peace in Ukraine at the Vatican's Saint Peter's Square. AFP -
A woman (right) hugs an arriving passenger from a train carrying refugees at Berlin's central station. EPA -
Firefighters battle a blaze in a Kharkiv police building hit by shelling. AFP -
A Ukrainian woman makes a phone call after crossing the Slovakian border. AFP -
A doctor takes shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters -
Debris which locals say was caused by shelling in separatist-controlled Horlivka, Donetsk. Reuters -
MPs in London give a standing ovation to Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, who was in the public gallery. AP -
Distraught women and children fleeing Ukraine wait to enter Poland at the Korczowa crossing. Getty -
Newborn Ivan lies next to his mother as they shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters -
Firefighters hand water to people in a Ukrainian train full of refugees in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters -
Ukrainian refugees queue to file for residency permits at Prague's police headquarters. AFP -
Firefighters work to contain a blaze in buildings housing the Kharkiv regional police department. AFP -
A woman and her children sit in a tent in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter. AP -
Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze at the Kharkiv National University building, which city officials said was damaged by Russian shelling. Reuters -
An elderly woman comforts a child as they take shelter inside an underground station in Kyiv. Reuters -
People queue at a pharmacy in central Kyiv. Reuters -
A woman is consoled by a volunteer after fleeing from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Siret, Romania. Reuters -
A Ukrainian civilian in the city of Zhytomyr practises throwing petrol bombs. Reuters -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses after an interview with Reuters in Kyiv. Reuters -
A blast is seen at Kyiv's TV tower. Reuters -
A girl in Siret, Romania, covers herself with a blanket after fleeing from Ukraine. Reuters -
Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, acknowledges applause from US first lady Jill Biden as they attend President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address in Washington. AFP -
A man walks past the remains of Russian military vehicles in Bucha, close to Kyiv. AFP -
Civilians cross a river on a blown-up bridge on Kyiv's northern front. Defending the capital is a 'key priority', Ukraine's president has said. AFP -
Russian aircraft on the ground at Luninets Airbase, Belarus, about 50 kilometres north of the Ukrainian border. AFP -
People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha. AP -
A woman with a child who fled from the war in Ukraine reunite with their family after crossing the border in Medyka, Poland. AP -
Animal keeper Kirilo Trantin comforts an elephant at Kyiv Zoo. AP -
An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha. AP -
Ukrainian families say goodbye as they prepare to board a bus to Poland at Lviv, western Ukraine. AP -
Paramedics move a man who was wounded by shelling in a residential area of Mariupol, south-eastern Ukraine. AP -
Rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike in Zhytomyr. Reuters -
US actor and director Sean Penn attends a press briefing at the Presidential Office in Kyiv. Reuters -
Demonstrators participate in a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at Lafayette Square in Washington. AFP -
Ukrainian soldiers rest while others eat near the front line with Russian troops in northern Kyiv. AP -
A barricade made of trams, buses and sand bags is seen through the window of car in the northern part of Kyiv. AP -
Members of the European Parliament applaud after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech at a special session to debate its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Reuters -
Ambassadors and diplomats walk out as Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (on screen) speaks during a recorded message at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. EPA
