UN General Assembly votes on Russian offensive in Ukraine

The UN General Assembly has voted to rebuke Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and demand that Moscow’s forces leave the former Soviet republic immediately.

The nonbinding resolution was passed on Wednesday, with 141 countries voting in favor, 35 abstaining, and five opposing the measure. The only votes against the resolution were cast by Belarus, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea, and Russia itself. India, South Africa, and Iraq were among the members that abstained, as were Russian allies such as Iran, Cuba, and Kazakhstan.

Wednesday’s result follows a vote last Friday by the UN Security Council in which Russia exercised its veto power to block a draft resolution denouncing the invasion. With all other Security Council members having either voted in favor or abstained, the draft resolution was allowed to be taken up in the General Assembly’s first emergency session since 1997.

The resolution, which needed a two-thirds majority of those voting to pass the General Assembly, also called on Russia to reverse its decision to recognize the breakaway Lugansk (LPR) and Donetsk (DPR) People’s Republics as sovereign nations rather than Ukrainian territory.

Russian forces invaded Ukraine last week, after President Vladimir Putin announced his country’s official recognition of the LPR and DRP, then called for an operation to “demilitarize and denazify” its neighbor.