Munir Ahmed<\/p>\n
Amid the sensation of late news about Russia-US secret talks in Ankara on Monday by a private agency Kommersant, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for Russia to be held accountable for violating international law by invading Ukraine. The resolution has asked Russia to pay reparations for widespread damage to the country and Ukrainians killed and injured during the war.
\nThe vote in the 193-member world body was 94-14 with 73 abstentions. It was close to the lowest level of support received by any of the five Ukraine-related resolutions adopted by the General Assembly since Russia\u2019s February 24 invasion of its smaller neighbour. The resolution recognises the need to establish \u201can international mechanism for reparation for damage, loss or injury\u201d arising from Russia\u2019s \u201cwrongful acts\u201d against Ukraine. It recommends that the assembly\u2019s member nations, in cooperation with Ukraine, create \u201can international register\u201d to document claims and information on damage, loss or injury to Ukrainians and the government caused by Russia.
\nBefore the vote, Ukraine\u2019s Ambassador to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya told the assembly that \u201cRussia has tried its best to destroy Ukraine in a very literal sense.\u201d Russia\u2019s bombing and shelling of cities and villages, \u201ctargeting everything from plants and factories to residential buildings, schools, hospitals and kindergartens\u201d as well as roads, bridges, railways and almost half of Ukraine\u2019s power grid and utilities in the last month alone. He also cited accounts of atrocities committed by Russians in the territory it occupied.
\nRussia\u2019s Ambassador to UN Vassily Nebenzia urged assembly members to vote against the resolution, calling it \u201can attempt to legalise something that from the view of existing international law cannot be legalised. It is \u201clegally null and void.\u201d He accused the West of \u201cdoing everything it can to provide a veneer of legitimacy\u201d to start spending frozen or actually \u201cstolen Russian assets amounting to billions of dollars.\u201d The West is seeking a General Assembly decision \u201cas a screen to hide this open robbery\u201d whose \u201cbeneficiaries will end up being the Western military corporations.\u201d
\nThe UNGA decision is not unexpected. The US bloc is the largest in the UN General Assembly, and certainly powerful too. It includes the NATO and EU members and some of their non-member strategic partners. Might is always right even if irrational. The global power dynamics are run by the largest bloc within the US political arena with the support of like-minded from some other mighty nations. All the war merchants.
\nThe Ukraine war is the result of the malicious fiddling the US bloc war merchants had in the Black Sea for more than a decade. Falsely dreams have ruined the prosperous realities in Ukraine. The nations have to pay the heavy cost of their leaders\u2019 lust and unwise geopolitical decisions. Ukraine and the entire world are suffering from the comedian-actor\u2019s lust and lack of political wisdom that finally opened the doors to devastation in Ukraine.
\nThe war merchants shall be celebrating the UNGA resolution, and preparing their plans to eat up the frozen Russian assets amounting to billions of dollars. It cost the US less than $20 billion in military shipments to Ukraine since August 2021 \u2013 just after the hasty withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan. NATO\u2019s accumulated military aid has similar statistics.
\nOver the past six months, the EU has provided over \u20ac3 billion to Ukraine through the EPF for arms and equipment, signalling a more muscular EU foreign policy featuring the unprecedented provision of direct military assistance. In addition to a separate \u20ac1.2 billion loan, for a total of \u20ac4.2 billion. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in early October this year that the EU is set to provide Ukraine with up to \u20ac18 billion in financial assistance throughout 2023 to cover the basic budgetary needs of the war-torn country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier that his country will need around $55 billion to sustain next year\u2019s budget deficit and repair damaged infrastructure.
\nThe UNGA resolution is likely to increase tension and instability in the entire world. Already a consistently increasing trust deficit in the UN system that is only based on head counts, not logical and rational arguments. Sixteen countries and the Palestinians echoed Russia, saying in a joint statement that the resolution didn\u2019t have \u201csufficient legal basis.\u201d Its signatories, including China, Iran, Angola and Venezuela, said countries suffering from foreign interference, colonialism, slavery, oppression, unilateral sanctions \u201cand other internationally wrongful acts, also deserve the right to remedy, reparation and justice, which should be addressed through sound legal processes.\u201d
\nRussia\u2019s veto power in the 15-member Security Council has blocked the UN\u2019s most powerful body from taking any action since President Vladimir Putin ordered the \u201cSpecial Military Operation.\u201d But there are no vetoes in the General Assembly, which previously adopted four resolutions criticising Russia\u2019s \u201cinvasion.\u201d Unlike the UN Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but they do reflect world opinion and have demonstrated widespread opposition to Russia\u2019s military action.
\nOn the other hand, to further enhance the Ukrainian agenda in Europe amid Europeans\u2019 growing fatigue with the armed conflict in Ukraine, Kyiv is said to be preparing for another cynical provocation against Russia. An informed source has reported that Kyiv is to dig up cemeteries and pass off the people buried there as \u201cvictims of Russian aggression\u201d to discredit Russia globally. Reportedly, the Kyiv authorities have exhumed bodies from the local cemetery in Izyum in the Kharkiv region, which had spontaneously emerged during the spring hostilities near the town. Russia has also repeatedly blamed Ukraine for not taking back the remains of AFU servicemen. Strange and stingy state of affairs to have more aid and sympathies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Munir Ahmed Amid the sensation of late news about Russia-US secret talks in Ankara on Monday by a private agency Kommersant, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for Russia to be held accountable for violating international law by invading Ukraine. The resolution has asked Russia to pay reparations for widespread damage to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[3158,11438,4794],"class_list":{"0":"post-295631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-munir-ahmed","8":"tag-reparations","9":"tag-ukraine-war"},"yoast_head":"\n