For lack of allies, Russia renounces the vote on a resolution at the UN

Moscow more isolated than ever at the UN. Russia has given up holding a vote in the United Nations Security Council on Friday on a resolution related to the war in Ukraine, for lack of support from its closest allies, diplomats told AFP on Thursday.

“They called for co-sponsorship” for their text, which they said focused on humanitarian issues, “and there was no return,” said an ambassador on condition of anonymity, suggesting that neither China nor India supported the controversial Russian initiative and would have voted in favor of it.

Russia confirmed Thursday its renunciation during an emergency meeting of the Security Council that the West had demanded. “We have decided not to ask for a vote” on this resolution on Friday, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council, without looking at his counterparts, his eye riveted on his text. .

“War crimes”

Previously, Russia had suffered a backlash from several members of the Security Council over its initiative for a humanitarian text “condemning attacks on civilians” and calling for protection of civilians to guarantee their departure from Ukrainian cities.

It is “the biggest hypocrisy, the size of Russia”, and it “should be in the Guinness Book of Records”, launched the Albanian ambassador, Ferit Hoxha, while Russia is accused of having bombed a maternity and then a theater in Mariupol. The war has made “three million refugees in three weeks”, the equivalent of the population of the whole of Albania, he underlined.

The perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine will be “accountable” before international justice, for their part warned the G7 foreign ministers in a joint statement, stressing that the “collection of evidence” was in progress.

Other points from Blinken, Moscow risks:
– Carry out a chemical attack then accuse kyiv and use this pretext for an escalation
– Bring paramilitary + foreign mercenaries
– kidnap + chosen ones
– “significant” effort in the negotiationspic.twitter.com/fepLAuPUUd

— Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) March 17, 2022

An accusation taken up by the head of American diplomacy: “Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime. After so much destruction in the past three weeks, I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing anything other than that,” Antony Blinken said on Thursday. Referring to the ongoing talks between kyiv and Moscow, the US Secretary of State considered that Russia had not shown so far “significant effort” and said he feared a chemical attack from Moscow, which could, according to him, then accuse kyiv of being responsible to justify an escalation.