Updated: 10:30am (AEST)
United Nations
Reuters
Marking one year of war, Ukraine and Russia lobbied countries at the United Nations on Wednesday for backing ahead of a vote by the 193-member General Assembly that the United States declared will “go down in history”.
“We will see where the nations of the world stand on the matter of peace in Ukraine,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the General Assembly.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to mark one year since Russia invaded Ukraine and to consider the adoption of a resolution on Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, on 22nd February, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Eduardo Munoz
The General Assembly appeared set to adopt a resolution on Thursday, put forward by Ukraine and supporters, stressing “the need to reach, as soon as possible, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in line with the founding UN Charter.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced Russia’s invasion and said the Charter was “unambiguous”, citing from it: “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”
Ukraine and its supporters hope to deepen Russia’s diplomatic isolation by seeking yes votes from nearly three-quarters of the General Assembly to match – if not better – the support received for several resolutions last year.
They argue the war is a simple case of one unprovoked country illegally invading another, while Russia portrays itself as battling a “proxy war” with West, which has been arming Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Moscow since the invasion.
“The West has…brazenly ignored our concerns and continue bringing the military infrastructure of NATO closer and closer to our borders,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the General Assembly.
“Very simple”
Nebenzia said Moscow “had no other option” but to launch what it has called a “special military operation” on 24th February last year to defend Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine and ensure “the safety and security of our country, using military means.”
The draft UN resolution, which is non-binding, but carries political weight, mirrors a demand the General Assembly made last year for Moscow to withdraw troops and halt the hostilities. Russia has described the text as “unbalanced and anti-Russian” and urged countries to vote no.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defense as enshrined in the UN Charter and that “when you are sending weapons to Ukraine, you are helping Ukraine to defend UN Charter.”
“Russia violated the UN Charter by becoming an aggressor,” he said at the United Nations. “When you are sending weapons to them, you are helping to destroy the UN Charter and everything that the United Nations stand for. It’s very simple.”
The General Assembly has been the focus for UN action on Ukraine, with the 15-member Security Council paralyzed due to veto power by Russia and the United States along with China, France and Britain.
The Security Council has held dozens of meetings on Ukraine in the past year and will again discuss the war on Friday at a ministerial gathering, due to be attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Diplomats say Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is not scheduled to attend.
Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba speaks during a high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to mark one year since Russia invaded Ukraine, and to consider the adoption of a resolution on Ukraine, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, on 22nd February, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Eduardo Munoz
Earlier on Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin said that China’s Xi Jinping would visit Russia, saying relations had reached “new frontiers” amid US concerns Beijing could provide material support to the invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would threaten a potential escalation of the war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the US-led NATO military alliance on the other.
Putin welcomed China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, to the Kremlin, telling him bilateral trade was better than expected and could soon reach $US200 billion a year, up from $US185 billion in 2022.
“We await a visit of the President of the People’s Republic of China to Russia, we have agreed on this,” Putin told Wang.
“Everything is progressing, developing. We are reaching new frontiers,” Putin said.
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Tass news agency cited Yi – who held a separate meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – as saying China would “firmly adhere to an objective and impartial position and play a constructive role in the political settlement of the crisis”.
The Russian foreign ministry said it welcomed China taking a more active role in efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and said it valued China’s “balanced approach”. But in a separate statement, the ministry said Lavrov and Yi had not discussed a reported Chinese peace plan.
For Putin, China’s big-power support amid the biggest confrontation with the West since the height of the Cold War allows him to cast Russia’s isolation in the West as a tilt towards Asia.
Wang told Putin that relations between the two countries had withstood the pressure from a volatile international situation and that crises offered certain opportunities.
The relationship between China and Russia, Wang said through an interpreter, was not directed against any third party but equally would “not succumb to pressure from third parties” – a clear jab at the United States.
“Together we support multi-polarity and democratisation in international relations,” Wang told Putin.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with China’s Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, on 22nd February, 2023. PICTURE: Sputnik/Anton Novoderezhkin/Pool via Reuters
When Xi met Putin face to face just before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, they sealed a “no limits” partnership that triggered anxiety in the West.
China is Russia’s largest buyer of oil, one of the key sources of revenues for Moscow’s state coffers.
Xi and Putin
For Xi, Russia is now more dependent on Beijing than ever and is a junior partner to a resurgent China, which already leads in many 21st century technologies.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday warned Wang of consequences should China provide material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Beijing has denied providing military support to Russia.
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After Blinken’s warnings, for which he did not supply evidence, China said the United States was in no position to make demands.
“No matter how the international situation changes, China has been and remains committed, together with Russia, to make efforts to preserve the positive trend in the development of relations between major powers,” Wang told Lavrov.
Xi has stood by Putin during the conflict in Ukraine, resisting Western pressure to isolate Moscow. Chinese-Russian trade has soared since the invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has boosted oil exports to Asian countries, including China.
– Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux
