U.N. Security Council, including Russia, expresses concern about Ukraine
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The U.N. Safety Council, together with Russia, on Friday expressed “deep concern relating to the upkeep of peace and safety of Ukraine” and backed efforts by the U.N. chief to discover a peaceable answer within the physique’s first assertion since Moscow’s invasion.
Safety Council statements are agreed by consensus. The temporary textual content adopted on Friday was drafted by Norway and Mexico.
“The Safety Council expresses deep concern relating to the upkeep of peace and safety of Ukraine,” it reads. “The Safety Council remembers that every one Member States have undertaken, beneath the Constitution of the United Nations, the duty to settle their worldwide disputes by peaceable means.”
“The Safety Council expresses sturdy help for the efforts of the Secretary-Basic within the seek for a peaceable answer,” reads the assertion, which additionally requests U.N. chief Antonio Guterres temporary the council once more “sooner or later.”
Guterres welcomed the council help on Friday, saying he would “spare no effort to avoid wasting lives, cut back struggling and discover the trail of peace.”
Guterres met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv final week.
His visits paved the way in which for joint United Nations and Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross operations which have evacuated some 500 civilians from Ukraine’s port metropolis of Mariupol and the besieged Azovstal metal plant previously week.
The Safety Council assertion was agreed regardless of a diplomatic tit-for-tat that has been escalating since Russia launched on Feb. 24 what it calls a “particular army operation” and what Guterres blasted as Russia’s “absurd battle.”
Russia vetoed a draft Safety Council decision on Feb. 25 that might have deplored Moscow’s invasion. China, the United Arab Emirates and India abstained from the vote. A council decision wants 9 votes in favor and no vetoes by the US, Russia, China, France or Britain to go.
The 193-member U.N. Basic Meeting, the place no nation has a veto, has since overwhelmingly adopted two resolutions, illustrating Russia’s worldwide isolation over Ukraine. Such resolutions are nonbinding, however they carry political weight.
The Basic Meeting has deplored Russia’s “aggression towards Ukraine,” demanding each that Russian troops cease combating and withdraw and that there be assist entry and civilian safety. It additionally criticized Russia for making a “dire” humanitarian state of affairs.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; enhancing by Diane Craft and Rosalba O’Brien)
