A UN resolution, adopted Thursday at a large majority of 141 votes, requires the Russian withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Two additional countries have rallied to Russia, bringing to six the supports declared in Moscow.
by Philippe Ricard (in Paris) and Carrie Noooten (New York, United Nations, corresponding)
A year after the start of the Russian invasion, as echoing the violence of the fighting in Ukraine, the diplomatic impasse seems total. This is the main lesson in the negotiations that have occurred in recent days in the United Nations, despite the vote by its general assembly, Thursday, February 23, in New York, of a resolution condemning Moscow. The text proposed by Ukraine, with the support of its Western allies, was adopted by 141 votes to, out of 193 member states, 7 against and 32 abstentions. Including that of China, which also multiplies the signs of support in Moscow and which presented, Friday morning, a very general peace plan.
After long diplomatic efforts, kyiv and Western capitals have certainly managed to isolate Russia. The adoption of the resolution demanding the “cessation of hostilities” and the “immediate withdrawal” of the Russian troops was greeted by applause: this new vote tends to prove that the support for Kiev does not be flexed, within a International community, which is very shared, where certain states do not hide their weariness or their indifference towards the conflict. “This resolution is a strong signal of unwavering global support to Ukraine,” said Volodymyr Zelensky Thursday evening, on Twitter.
The mapping of the vote is almost identical to that of the first ballot on March 2, 2022, which condemned the Russian invasion, a week after the start of the war. “This shows the solidity and the constancy of the support provided by the vast majority of the international community,” said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, presents in New York. The last large -scale vote, in October 2022, to condemn the annexation by Moscow by four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by the Russian troops, had gathered 143 votes for, four against and 35 abstentions.
The three abstentionist heavy goods vehicles of China, India and South Africa have not changed their position of an iota. The Brazil of Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva voted in favor of the text, as did Brazil of Jair Bolsonaro, who regularly abstained from the Security Council in 2022 but voted in favor of Ukraine at the General meeting. With 32 states, the abstainers’ camp remains stable, an index of the difficulty of Western countries to convince so -called global southern countries. It is still half composed by African votes, even if the continent voted mainly in favor of the resolution (30 countries out of 54).
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