“RUSSIA CAN STOP TOMORROW”
The vote showed Moscow’s continued isolation on the world stage after 12 months of war.
Despite its support from only a handful of countries, Russia has used its veto power to block any binding motions against it in the UN Security Council.
Instead, the UN General Assembly has taken up the issue, displaying solid support for Kyiv in successive votes.
“Next year, we should not meet here to mark the second anniversary of this senseless war of aggression,” said Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi during the debate.
“Russia can and must stop, tomorrow,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.
“This war waged by Russia is everybody’s business because it threatens the existence of a state, because it represents a domineering and imperialist plan, and because it denies the existence of borders.”
But Russia dismissed the resolution, with its UN representative Vasily Nebenzya calling Ukraine “neo-Nazi” and accusing the West of sacrificing the country and the developing world in their desire to beat Russia.
“They are ready to plunge the entire world into the abyss of war” to maintain their own “hegemony”, Nebenzya said.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell rejected that.
“I want to stress it: this war is not a ‘European issue’. Nor is it about ‘the West versus Russia’,” Borrell told the General Assembly.
“No, this illegal war concerns everyone: the North, the South, the East and the West.”
