U.N. publicly rejects Russia's call for secret vote on Ukraine

10.10.22
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Monday to reject Russia's call for the 193-member body to hold a secret ballot later this week on whether to condemn Moscow's move to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine. The General Assembly decided, with 107 votes in favor, that it would hold a public vote - not a secret ballot - on a draft resolution that condemns Russia's "illegal so-called referenda" and the "attempted illegal annexation." Diplomats said the vote on the resolution would likely be on Wednesday or Thursday. After the General Assembly decided on Monday that it would hold a public vote on the draft resolution, Russia immediately tried to get the body to reconsider the issue, but it overwhelmingly failed. Moscow has moved to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - after staging what it called referendums. Ukraine and allies have denounced the votes as illegal and coercive.

The draft U.N. General Assembly resolution calls on states not to recognize Russia's move and reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya called on countries to defend the principles of the founding U.N. Charter. "A trail of blood is left behind the Russian delegation when it enters the General Assembly and the hall is filled up with the smell of smoldering human flesh. That's what we have tolerated in Syria. That's what is happening today in Ukraine," he told the General Assembly on Monday. The moves at the United Nations mirror what happened in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea. At the Security Council Russia vetoed a draft resolution that opposed a referendum on the status of Crimea and urged countries not to recognize it. The General Assembly then adopted a resolution declaring the referendum invalid with 100 votes in favor.

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