The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution Wednesday, strongly condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and demanding Russian troops withdraw immediately. The resolution also criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for having put his nuclear forces on alert.
It received approval from 141 U.N. member nations, while five states including North Korea and Syria voted against it. China, India and 33 other nations abstained. Russia deserves the U.N. condemnation for its brutal attacks on Ukraine in violation of the U.N. Charter prohibiting acts of aggression. All U.N. member nations should abide by the U.N. Charter and join moves against any violation as responsible members of the international community.
“The world is rejecting Russia's lies. Russia is responsible for the devastating abuses of human rights and the international humanitarian crisis that we are watching in Ukraine in real time,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement. We hope the recent U.N. move will help expedite efforts toward more international alliances and assistance to Ukraine.
The International Criminal Court, for its part, should embark on a full-fledged investigation into the possible atrocities committed by Russian troops against Ukrainian people to prevent more harm to civilians. In this vein, it is encouraging that the ICC chief prosecutor unveiled plans to proceed immediately with active probes into possible war crimes. “Our work in the collection of evidence has now commenced,” Karim Khan wrote in a statement.
In the face of growing international pressure, Russia has expressed its intention to discuss a ceasefire during an envisioned second round of negotiations with Ukraine. Yet what Russia needs to do right now is stop its bombing, to prove its sincerity toward stopping war. Russia already took global flak for its missile attacks in Ukrainian civilian residential areas.
Russia has continued its offensives, infiltrating the airspaces of Sweden and Japan with fighter jets and helicopters. Worse still, Russia has been threatening the world with nuclear blackmail. “If a third world war were to occur, it would involve nuclear weapons and be destructive,” Russia's RIA news media quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying. Russia needs to pay particular heed to the growing international pressures that are isolating it further from global society.
An increasing number of private enterprises, international institutes from various sectors such as sports, culture and arts as well as governments are combining efforts to expel or sever ties with Russia. All these and others well prove that Putin made the wrong decision in attacking Ukraine, and Ukraine is stronger than Putin thought. First and foremost, international society is overwhelmingly backing Ukraine and its people.
Russia should realize that it cannot win its current war against Ukraine, and will see more harm to its troops and people as well if the war protracts. The Russian people are generally opposed to the war, which means Putin has already lost. As the U.N. put it, Russian troops should withdraw from Ukraine immediately.