The UN General Assembly on Thursday passed a non-binding resolution declaring invalid Crimea’s Moscow-backed referendum earlier this month on seceding from Ukraine, in a vote that western nations said highlighted Russia’s isolation.
There were 100 votes in favor, 11 against and 58 abstentions in the 193-nation assembly. Two dozen countries did not participate in the vote, either because they did not show up or because they have not paid their dues, UN diplomats said.
Western diplomats said the number of yes votes was higher than expected despite what they called Moscow’s aggressive lobbying efforts against the resolution.
The General Assembly resolution echoed a text that Moscow vetoed earlier this month in the Security Council. The approved declaration dismissed Crimea’s vote as “having no validity, [and] cannot form the basis for any alteration of the status of the autonomous Republic of Crimea or of the city of Sevastopol.”
The resolution, which does not mention Russia by name, says the General Assembly “calls upon all states, international organisations and specialised agencies not to recognise any alteration of the status” of Crimea and Sevastopol.
Although the resolution is non-binding, western diplomats said it sends a strong political message about Russia’s lack of broad support on the Crimean issue. They said the fact that Russia lobbied so hard to persuade UN member states not to vote for it was proof that Moscow took it seriously.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia, who introduced the text to the assembly, said after the vote that an “overwhelming majority of nations in the world supported this resolution.”
“The purpose of this document is to reinforce core United Nations principles at a moment when they are experiencing a major challenge,” he said before the vote.
“This text is also about respect of territorial integrity and non use of force to settle disputes,” he added.
‘Dirty dozen’
Speaking before the vote, Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin urged countries to support what he said was Crimea’s right of self-determination and to respect the Crimeans’ choice to place themselves under the authority of Moscow.
“Russia could not refuse the Crimeans to support their right to self-determination in fulfilling their long-standing aspiration,” he said. “Historical justice has been vindicated.”
Churkin said: “The fact that almost half of the members of the United Nations refused to support this resolution, I think, is very encouraging,” he said.
Several western diplomats, however, said many states which sympathise with Ukraine abstained or chose not to be present for fear of angering Russia.
Israel, Iran, Serbia and several former Soviet republics in central Asia like Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan were among those that did not take part in the vote.
Ukraine’s former Russian-backed president, Viktor Yanukovich, was
Only 10 other countries stood with Russia in voting against the resolution. The group of 11 states, which the senior western diplomat described as the “dirty dozen”, included critics of western nations like Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Both Nicaragua and Bolivia railed against what they described as western attempts at “regime change.”