UN General Assembly demands Russia withdraw troops from Ukraine

In historic UN General Assembly vote, 141 nations reprimand Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, demand withdrawal of forces

Most of the world’s nations have voted in favour of a United Nations resolution demanding that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally” withdraw its military forces from Ukraine, in a powerful rebuke of Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.

Qazet.az reports that the resolution was adopted on Wednesday at a rare emergency session of the UN General Assembly.

It was supported by 141 of the UN’s 193 members.

China, India and South Africa were among the 35 countries that abstained, while just five (Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Belarus and of course Russia) voted against it.

Also even Russia’s traditional ally Serbia voted against it.

Nearly every General Assembly speaker unreservedly condemned the war.

“If the United Nations has any purpose, it is to prevent war,” said the United States’s UN envoy, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

She said Russia was “preparing to increase the brutality of its campaign” and was “moving exceptionally lethal weaponry into Ukraine”, including cluster munitions and vacuum bombs.

Ukraine’s UN envoy, Sergiy Kyslytsya, called the resolution “one of the building blocks to build a wall to stop” the Russian offensive, and urged countries to support the text.