The UN General Assembly will open this wednesday special session on Russian invasion of Ukraine. The meeting will continue all day on Thursday, possibly even into Friday, depending on how many of the 193 members of the organism take the floor.
The resolution approved by the Assembly will not be binding. but mainly symbolic, but the 68 countries who already sponsor her underline its importance because it will send “a strong message to Russia that it should sit in a negotiating table”, as the US ambassador to the UN highlighted on Tuesday, Lisa Thomas-Greenfield.
The Assembly has become the only instance of the UN where resolutions can be approved, given the ineffectiveness of the Security Councilwhere he right of veto of Russia has prevented the adoption of a single resolution on the war in Ukraine after a year of conflict.
The resolution contains the call for a “cessation of hostilities” which must be followed by negotiations between the parties, underlining the central role of the United Nations charter and the territorial integrity of states, which entails a withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territoryaccording to European sources explained to journalists.
Instead of the ambassadors taking the floor, the European Union will post 25 ministers who will speak on behalf of their countries in order to give greater political prominence and show an image of unity behind a common objective.
The big question is whether the so-called “western” countries (the EU, the US, Canada, Japan and Australia, mainly) achieve greater support than the 143 votes which last October condemned in the Assembly the Russian attempts to annex parts of Ukraine after the celebration of four illegal referendums.
That was the greatest diplomatic triumph of the “Western bloc”, since Russia only achieved the support of four countries –Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua and Syria-, while 35 abstained, including China and much of the African continent.
China has been technically neutral throughout this year, but its diplomats at the UN always show great understanding of the Russian arguments and A rumor is circulating -so far unconfirmed- that Beijing is promoting a parallel resolution to counter the one to be discussed.
The direction of the vote of the African countries -in which the Chinese economic influence and the Russian military presence are growing unstoppably- will be the one that will finally demonstrate if, one year after the invasion, the formerly called “third world” sides with the Western bloc or prefers to stay out of a conflict that they see as alien.
The number of civilians killed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine confirmed by the United Nations surpassed this Tuesday the barrier of 8,000indicated the UN Office for Human Rights, which pointed out that a year of conflict has also caused 13,287 wounded among the non-military population.
“Our data is just the tip of the iceberg in a war whose cost to civilians is unbearable,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement. Volker Turk.
His office, which has tracked civilian casualties since the start of the Russian invasion, published an annual report stressing that at least 487 of the civilians killed in a year of war and 954 of the wounded were boys and girls.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putinassured that will “systematically” continue Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com