The item "Situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine" remained on the agenda during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Russia declined to put forward a proposal to the General Assembly to remove this issue from the agenda. According to the Ukrainian side, this followed a diplomatic campaign by Kyiv among UN member states, after which the Russian delegation was forced to concede defeat.
This was stated in the statement by Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, Andriy Melnyk.
Following a failed attempt to have the Ukrainian issue removed from the agenda during a meeting of the UN General Committee, the Russian delegation raised the issue again at the plenary meeting of the General Assembly. According to Andriy Melnyk, Moscow was counting on increasing the number of states that would abstain or fail to participate in the vote due to a lack of timely instructions from their capitals.
Ahead of the meeting, the Ukrainian delegation conducted a large-scale diplomatic campaign. Ambassador Andriy Melnyk personally sent letters to more than 180 Permanent Representatives of UN member states, urging them to support Ukraine's position and prevent Russian attempts to alter the agenda. In addition to official diplomatic channels, appeals were sent directly to colleagues via personal communication tools, which made it possible to promptly receive confirmation of support from the majority of delegations.
According to the diplomat, after receiving these signals, the Russian side realized it had no chance of success and changed its tactics on the very day of the meeting.
Instead of putting the issue to a vote, representatives of Russia only expressed disagreement with the General Committee's recommendation to keep the item "Situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine" on the agenda of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
During his speech at the General Assembly meeting, the Permanent Representative of Ukraine emphasized, that Russia's arguments have no legal basis and contradict previous decisions of the General Assembly itself. He recalled that Resolution 77/229 provided for keeping this item on the agenda until the complete cessation of foreign occupation and the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, and this decision was reaffirmed by subsequent resolutions 78/221, 79/184, and 80/223.
Andriy Melnyk also rejected Russian references to Article 12 of the UN Charter, explaining that the consideration of the situation in Ukraine by the Security Council does not deprive the General Assembly of the right to concurrently address issues of human rights violations and the humanitarian situation in the temporarily occupied territories.
"The need to keep this item on the agenda has not disappeared anywhere. On the contrary, Russia's temporary occupation continues, just as the serious and systematic violations and abuses by the occupation authorities continue," the Ukrainian diplomat stated.
He also stressed that Russia has been blocking any UN Security Council decisions on achieving an immediate and unconditional ceasefire for over a year and a half, making the use of this as an argument to restrict the work of the General Assembly groundless.
As a result, the General Assembly kept the item "Situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine" on the agenda of its 81st session, and the Russian delegation abandoned its attempt to put its own proposal to a vote.
Photo: Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations
Author: Inna Mikhno