India joined more than 100 other countries in opposing Russia’s demand for a secret vote in the UN General Assembly on a draught resolution that would have denounced Moscow’s illegitimate annexation of four areas of Ukraine. The Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine have been the subject of illegal so-called referendums by Russia, as well as an illegal attempt to annex them. On Monday, the 193 members of the UN General Assembly voted on a motion made by Albania that the vote on the draught resolution condemning these actions be conducted by recorded vote.
The secret ballot vote was required by Russia in order to pass the resolution. Moscow’s request for a secret vote was turned down as 107 UN members, including India, voted in favour of a recorded vote. Only 13 nations voted in favour of Russia’s request for a secret ballot, and 39 others stayed silent. One of the nations that abstained was China, along with Russia.
Russia filed an appeal following the general assembly president’s decision to allow a recorded vote. India was one of the 100 nations who voted against Moscow’s appeal in the recorded vote on the matter. The motion put out by Albania for a recorded vote was then adopted, and Russia asked for the choice to be reviewed.
104 countries, including India, voted against the motion’s reconsideration, while 16 voted in favour and 34 abstained, and the General Assembly ultimately chose not to do so. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s Permanent Representative, stated that the general assembly’s president had, regrettably, played a significant role in an appalling scam that the UN membership had come to see.
The indication light at our seat is still on, we weren’t given the chance to raise a point of order, our message was misrepresented, and now UN member states are losing their ability to freely express their opinions. The legitimacy of the general assembly and the United Nations as a whole is being undermined by this unprecedented deception. Naturally, we decided not to participate in the voting in such conditions, he stated.
India stayed silent last month when Russia overruled a draught UN Security Council resolution that had been put out by the US and Albania to denounce Moscow’s illegitimate referendums and invalidate the annexation of four Ukrainian areas. Following a ceremony in the Kremlin where Russian President Vladimir Putin signed agreements to annex the Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, the 15-member UN Security Council voted on the draught resolution on illegal “referenda” in Ukraine. Russia, a permanent member of the UNSC, vetoed the resolution, preventing its adoption.
10 of the 15 members of the council voted in favour of the motion, while China, Gabon, India, and Brazil abstained. After Russia exercised its veto, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield vowed to keep pushing for accountability at the UN in the General Assembly, where every member state has a vote. A senior US administration official had stated that the European Union was drafting a resolution to be presented in the assembly and considered at the emergency special session to condemn Russia’s actions as a blatant violation of the UN Charter and the principles of sovereignty and territoria. This was before UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi reconvened the emergency special session on Ukraine.
The proposed resolution would reiterate the call for Russia to end its unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine and withdraw its military from the border areas of the war-torn nation. Additionally, the resolution would urge all nations, international organisations, and United Nations specialised agencies to abstain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as endorsing any alteration of the status of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, or Zaporizhzhia by Russia.
A few hours prior to the UNGA’s action, Russia launched strikes against several Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, leaving at least 10 people dead and almost 60 others injured nationwide. Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi, stated that the escalation of hostilities was not in anyone’s best interests and that India was prepared to support all initiatives aimed at de-escalating the situation.
He urged an early end to hostilities and stated that India was “very concerned” about the crisis in Ukraine’s intensification, which included the targeting of infrastructure and the killing of civilians. India has not yet denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has insisted that diplomacy and communication are the only ways to find a solution to the problem. India has refrained from voting on the Ukraine conflict in the UN Security Council and General Assembly.
