UNSC adopts resolution urging UNGA emergency session on Ukraine; India abstains

India, China, and the UAE abstained, while Russia voted against the resolution

February 28, 2022

India abstains for the third time on UN Security Council vote on Ukraine crisis

In a first-of-its-kind resolution that the UN Security Council (UNSC) has adopted in four decades, it has approved Resolution 2623 that calls for an “emergency special session” of the UN General Assembly to consider and recommend collective action on the Ukraine crisis. The UNSC on Friday failed to adopt a draft resolution on Ukraine as per reports.

Meanwhile, India abstained from a procedural vote taken in the UN Security Council to call for a rare special emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The resolution was adopted with 11 votes in favour, paving the way for the General Assembly to meet on the crisis as soon as Monday. India, China, and the UAE abstained, while Russia voted against the resolution.

India’s Permanent Representative T S Tirumurti said that “it is regrettable that the situation in Ukraine has worsened further since the council last convened on this matter.”

“We reiterate our call for an immediate cessation of violence and an end to all hostilities. There is no other choice but to return back to the path of diplomacy and dialogue,” he said.

Welcoming the announcement by Ukraine and Russia to hold talks at the Belarus border, Tirumurti said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “strongly advocated” this course of diplomacy when he spoke with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Friday and with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelentsky on Saturday.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Abdulla Shahid said that he will preside over the 11th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York on Monday.

Taking to Twitter, Shahid said, following the decision taken in the Security Council, “I will preside over the Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly tomorrow – 28 February 2022 starting 10 am (local time)”.

Following the decision taken in the Security Council, I will preside over the Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly tomorrow – 28 Feb 2022 starting 10 am. pic.twitter.com/QEGRIx4yo8

— UN GA President (@UN_PGA) February 27, 2022

He said in a statement, “The Secretary-General of the United Nations presents his compliments to the Permanent Representatives to the United Nations and has the honour to inform that the Security Council today requested the convening of an emergency special session of the General Assembly.”

Meanwhile, Europe and Canada said they would close their airspace to Russian airlines after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, raising the pressure on the United States to do the same. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday said the European Union would shut down its airspace for planes owned, registered, or controlled by Russians, “including the private jets of oligarchs.”

The European Union action came after many of its member countries had said they were barring Russian planes or planned to do so by Sunday night.

Growing tension between Russia and western nations over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has so far had a modest impact on airlines, which are trying to recover from huge losses since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They face jet-fuel prices that have climbed more than 50 percent since last summer and are likely to rise further because of sanctions against Russian oil and natural gas.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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