The UN General Assembly passed a resolution with an overwhelming majority on Wednesday, urging nations and international organizations to not recognize the four regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed.
Russia held referendums late last month to further its annexation into areas of Ukraine, and the UN has demanded that Moscow reversed its actions.
The resolution defending the values of the UN Charter says that Russia has gained control of the areas of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia as a consequence of aggression, breaching Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and political independence.
The issue was taken up for debate by the General Assembly after Russia used its veto power in the Security Council to go ahead with its annexation attempt.
143 Member countries voted in favor of the resolution, five of them voted against it, 35 countries refrained from participating in the process and Laos was one of them. From our neighboring countries, Cambodia voted for the resolution to be passed, and Thailand and Vietnam chose to be absent from the deliberations as well.
The countries who voted against the resolution were Belarus, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Russia, and Syria.
BREAKING
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that condemns #Russia‘s “illegal so-called referendums” in regions within #Ukraine‘s internationally-recognized borders, and demands it reverses its annexation declaration.
In favour: 143
Against: 5
Abstentions: 35 pic.twitter.com/MDDIapqTGv
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) October 12, 2022
The resolution welcomes and “strongly supports” the Secretary-General and Member States’ ongoing efforts to de-escalate the current situation in Ukraine and hopes for peace in the region via communication, negotiation, and mediation.
Through the debate around the resolution, General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi reiterated that the UN Charter, the Secretary-General, and the Assembly itself had made its stance clear – Russia’s invasion, and attempted annexation of Ukrainian territory by force, “is illegal”.
Even this week, Russia has fired multiple missiles across Ukrainian cities leading to over a dozen deaths and injuries being reported.
