NEW YORK, 12 OCTOBER – The international community keeps on isolating Russia for its actions against Ukraine. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution, co-sponsored by Italy and scores of other countries, which clearly condemns the so-called “illegal referendums” and the “attempted illegal annexation” of four provinces of Ukraine by Russia as “not valid under the International law”. 143 countries voted in favor of the resolution, only five against.
India and China abstained
A majority of the 35 countries abstaining were African nations, alongside India and China, while, in addition to Russia and Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Nicaragua voted against the resolution. In order to pass, the resolution needed a two-thirds majority of the voting countries (abstentions did not count). Reaffirming the words of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the resolution states that “the UN Charter is clear: any annexation of the territory of a state by another state resulting from the threat or use of force is a violation of the principles of the Charter and international law”.
The text also reaffirms the commitment of states to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders. On March 2, the General Assembly voted 141-5 to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Only four countries – Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria – joined Russia against the resolution. 35 countries abstained.
In a Twitter message posted after the vote, the Italian Permanent Mission to the UN joined other EU delegations to state that the four provinces in which the referenda took place are part of Ukraine as well as Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014. The Mission also denied the Russian claim that foreign “observers”, including Italians, had monitored the regularity the referenda. “Said observers were not deployed by OSCE or by other international organizations that can certify that voting occurred regularly, nor by Italian institutions,” it said.
During the debate that preceded the vote, the Italian Permanent Representative, Maurizio Massari, unequivocally rejected and condemned the illegal attempt by Russia to annex the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. “Such unilateral annexation is void and cannot determine any legal effect whatsoever. Italy does not and will never recognize the illegal attempt of annexation, just as it has not recognized the illegal attempt of annexation of Crimea”, said the Italian envoy.(@OnuItalia)
