UN General Assembly demands Russia end operation in Ukraine
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Russia has submitted a resolution to the UN Security Council on Wednesday on the "humanitarian situation" in Ukraine but it was not adopted.
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UN General Assembly demands Russia end Ukraine war.
A new non-binding resolution, adopted by the UN General Assembly on Thursday, demanded an immediate halt to Russia's operation in Ukraine.
At UN headquarters in New York, 140 countries voted in favor, 38 abstained and five voted against.
The vote came after the adoption of a similar non-binding resolution on March 2 that demanded Russia immediately cease its use of force -- a vote that was approved by 141 countries.
Ukraine put forward the new resolution on Wednesday, originally prepared by France and Mexico, at an emergency session of the General Assembly.
A competing text by South Africa, which never mentioned Russia by name, received only 50 votes with, 67 against, and 36 abstentions, and was therefore not adopted.
The approved resolution specifically implicates Moscow and "demands an immediate cessation of the hostilities by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, in particular of any attacks against civilians and civilian objects."
US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has described the resolution as "building" on the March 2 vote.
She said it "makes that appeal to the one person with the ability to stop the violence. And that's Vladimir Putin."
Russia submitted a resolution to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, on the "humanitarian situation" in Ukraine -- but it was not adopted.
Earlier, Russia's envoy to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, vetoed the UN Security Council's draft resolution against Russia.
The Russian envoy called the draft resolution unbalanced, noting that Russian forces are not bombing Ukrainian cities.
The UN Security Council had a session to pass a US-sponsored resolution condemning "the Russian attack on Ukraine," which was vetoed by Russia.
Russia repeatedly stresses that its forces are only after the Ukrainian military infrastructure that is involved in the bombing and shelling of the DPR and LPR, killing and wounding hundreds.
Putin had launched the special military operation for several reasons, including NATO's eastward expansion. Other reasons were the Ukrainian shelling of Donbass and the killing of the people of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, in addition to Moscow wanting to "denazify" and demilitarize Ukraine.
