The UN will hold a special session on the Russian invasion of Ukraine where the cessation of hostilities will be demanded

There United Nations General Assembly will open this wednesday special session on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The meeting will go on all day Thursday, maybe even until Friday, depending on the number of 193 members of the organization take the floor.

The resolution approved by the Assembly will not be binding. but above all symbolic, but the 68 countries who are already sponsoring it stress its importance as it will send “a strong message to Russia that it should sit in a negotiation table“, as the United States Ambassador to the UN pointed out on Tuesday, Lisa Thomas Greenfield.

The Assembly has become the only United Nations forum where resolutions can be approved, given the ineffectiveness of the Security Councilwhere he Russia’s right of veto prevented the adoption of a single resolution on the war in Ukraine after a year of conflict.

The resolution contains the call for a “cessation of hostilities” which must be followed by negotiations between the parties, emphasizing the central role of Charter of the United Nations and the territorial integrity of States, which implies a withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territoryaccording to European sources explained to journalists.

Instead of the ambassadors taking the floor, the European Union will second 25 ministers who will speak on behalf of their country in order to give greater political visibility and to show an image of unity behind a common objective.

The big question is whether the so-called “Western” countries (the EU, the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia, mainly) get more support than the 143 votes who last October condemned in the Assembly Russian attempts to annex parts of Ukraine after the celebration of four illegal referendums.

It was the greatest diplomatic triumph of the “western bloc”, since Russia won the support of only four countries –Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua and Syria-, while 35 abstained, including China and much of the African continent.

China has been technically neutral throughout this year, but its diplomats at the UN still show great understanding of Russian arguments and A rumor is circulating – so far unconfirmed – that Beijing is promoting a parallel resolution to counter the one in question.

The direction of the vote of the African countries – in which the Chinese economic influence and the Russian military presence do not stop growing – will be the one that will finally manifest itself if, a year after the invasion, the former “third world” sides on the side of the Western bloc or prefer to stay out of a conflict which they consider foreign.

Number of civilians killed by Russian invasion of Ukraine confirmed by the UN exceeded this Tuesday the barrier of 8,000said the UN Human Rights Office, which pointed out that a year of conflict has also caused 13,287 injured among the non-military population.

“Our data is just the tip of the iceberg in a war whose cost to civilians is unbearable,” the UN human rights office said in a statement. Volker Turkish.

His office, which has been tracking civilian casualties since the start of the Russian invasion, has released an annual report pointing out that at least 487 of the civilians killed in a year of war and 954 of the wounded were boys and girls.

For his part, the President of Russia, Vladimir Poutineassured that will “systematically” continue the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

(With information from EFE)

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