UN Security Council rejects China-backed Russian humanitarian resolution on Ukraine

Name: Faces of the exodus: fear and anguish as more than 3 million Ukrainians flee Russian invasion
Uploaded: 2022-03-24T04:59:39.000Z
Duration: 1 min 26 s
Description: Faces of the exodus: fear and anguish as more than 3 million Ukrainians flee Russian invasion

Resolution on protecting civilians and letting in aid, not mentioning the war, is defeated as Ukraine tables another that specifies Russia must halt aggression

Moscow dismisses as ‘political anti-Russian show’ arguments that its invasion caused a humanitarian crisis, with quarter of Ukraine’s people fleeing their homes

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Ukrainian emergency workers and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from a maternity hospital damaged by shelling in Mariupol. The baby was born dead, and half an hour later the mother died too. Photo: AP

Associated Press

Published: 12:59pm, 24 Mar 2022Updated: 2:28pm, 24 Mar 2022

The UN Security Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly defeated a Russian resolution that acknowledged Ukraine’s growing humanitarian needs – but did not mention the Russian invasion that caused the escalating crisis, which has left millions of Ukrainians in desperate need of food, water and shelter.

To be adopted, Russia needed a minimum of nine “yes” votes in the 15-member Security Council and no veto by one of the four other permanent members – the US, Britain, France and China. But Russia got support only from China, with the 13 other council members abstaining, reflecting Moscow’s failure to get widespread backing for its war in Ukraine, which marks its one-month anniversary on Thursday.

The Russian defeat came on the same day the General Assembly started considering a resolution drafted by Ukraine and two dozen other countries, and cosponsored by nearly 100 nations, which clearly states that Russia’s aggression is responsible for the growing humanitarian emergency.

The assembly was also to consider a rival South African resolution that does not mention Russia and is similar to Moscow’s defeated council resolution. Action on those resolutions was delayed until Thursday because of the huge number of speakers.

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Faces of the exodus: fear and anguish as more than 3 million Ukrainians flee Russian invasion

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the council before the vote that its resolution was “not politicised” and just like other Security Council humanitarian resolutions, and he categorically rejected a US claim that his country had no right to submit such a resolution.

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