The United Nations General Assembly has condemned Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of four partially occupied regions in Ukraine and called on all countries not to recognize the move.
Three-quarters of the 193-member General Assembly – 143 seats – voted in favor of a resolution that also reaffirmed the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
Meanwhile, only four countries joined Russia in voting against the resolution – Syria, Nicaragua, North Korea and Belarus.
We emphasize that 35 other countries abstained from voting, including Russia’s strategic partner, China, while the rest did not vote.
Last week, Vladimir Putin signed laws absorbing four Ukrainian regions into Russia, finalizing the annexation of the occupied territories in defiance of international protests.
It followed so-called referendums in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, rejected as a fraud by Ukraine and the West.
Together with Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, Putin’s overall claim amounts to more than 22 percent of Ukrainian territory, although the exact borders of the four regions he is annexing have yet to be definitively clarified.