JAKARTA - Marking a year of war, Ukraine and Russia lobbied nations at the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday for support ahead of a vote by the 193-nation General Assembly.
"We'll see where the rest of the world stands in terms of peace in Ukraine," US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the General Assembly, as reported by Reuters on February 23.
The General Assembly looks set to adopt a resolution on Thursday, put forward by Ukraine and its backers, stressing "the need to achieve, as soon as possible, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace" in accordance with the UN Charter.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the Russian invasion and said the Charter was "unambiguous", quoting from the Charter: "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat of, or the use of force against, the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."
Ukraine and its backers are hoping to deepen Russia's diplomatic isolation, seeking a 'yes' vote from nearly three-quarters of the General Assembly to match, or even better, the support it received for several resolutions last year.
They argued that this war was a simple case of one unprovoked nation illegally invading another. Meanwhile, Russia describes itself as fighting a "proxy war" with the West, which has armed Ukraine and imposed sanctions on Moscow since the invasion.
"The West has... bravely ignored our concerns and continued to bring NATO's military infrastructure closer and closer to our borders," Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the General Assembly.
Nebenzia said Moscow "had no other choice" but to launch what it called a "special military operation" on February 24 last year to defend Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine and ensure the "safety and security of our country, by means of military."
The draft UN resolution, which is non-binding but has political weight, reflects a call made by the General Assembly last year for Moscow to withdraw troops and end hostilities. Russia itself described the text as "unbalanced and anti-Russian", urging countries to vote no.
Separately, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defense as enshrined in the UN Charter, and "when you send weapons to Ukraine, you are helping Ukraine to defend the UN Charter."
"Russia is violating the UN Charter by being an aggressor," he explained at the UN.
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"When you deliver weapons to them, you are helping to destroy the UN Charter and everything that the UN stands for. It's very simple," said Kuleba.
It is known, the General Assembly has become the focus for UN action against Ukraine, because the 15 members of the Security Council were 'paralyzed' due to vetoes by Russia and the United States along with China, France, and Britain.
While the Security Council has held dozens of meetings on Ukraine in the past year, it will return to discussing the war on Friday at a ministerial meeting, which will be attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is not scheduled to attend, according to diplomats.
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