THE Philippines joined 140 other nations in voting in supporting a resolution of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) rebuking Russia’s aggression invasion of Ukraine and asking Moscow to immediately withdraw all its forces from Ukraine.
Philippine Permanent Representative Enrique Manalo cast the Philippines “yes” vote during an emergency special session of the UNGA Thursday (Manila time).
The text of the resolution deplores Russia’s “aggression against Ukraine.” The last time the Security Council convened an emergency session of the General Assembly was in 1982, according to the UN website.
The resolution, which won support from 141 of the 193-member body, passed in a rare emergency session called by the UN Security Council and as Russian forces pounded Ukraine’s cities with air strikes and bombardments, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee.
The Philippine Permanent Mission to the UN said five member-states voted “No” to the resolution on “Aggression against Ukraine” at the 11th UN Emergency Special Session while 35 abstained.”
A statement delivered by the Department of Foreign Affairs before the UNGA session said Manila “strongly urges the cessation of hostilities” while echoing the call of the UN Secretary General for respect of humanitarian principles to protect civilians and civilian infrastructures in Ukraine.
The UN action aims to diplomatically isolate Russia at the world body.
Russia was joined by Belarus, which has served as a launch pad for Russian invasion forces, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria in voting against the resolution. China was among the 35 which abstained.
While General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they carry political weight, with Wednesday’s vote representing a symbolic victory for Ukraine and increasing Moscow’s international isolation.
“The evil will never stop. It requires more and more space,” Ukraine’s UN envoy, Sergiy Kyslytsa, said in urging passage of the resolution, calling it “one of the building blocks to build a wall to stop” the Russian offensive.
Russia’s UN envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, denied Moscow was targeting civilians and accused Western governments of pressuring assembly members to pass the resolution, whose adoption he said could fuel further violence. He repeated Russia’s assertion its action was a special military operation aimed at ending purported attacks on civilians in the self-declared, Moscow-backed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
“As 141 member states of the United Nations know, more is at stake even than the conflict in Ukraine itself. This is a threat to the security of Europe and the entire rules-based order,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters after the vote. — With Reuters
