The United Nations Security Council is going to hold an emergency meet on Thursday at the petition of six Western nations that aimed for an open session on Ukraine before the expected vote on a Russian humanitarian resolution that they have sharply condemned.
“Russia is executing war crimes and attacking civilians. Russia’s unfair war on Ukraine is a threat to us all,” tweeted the U.N. mission of the United Kingdom, one of the six nations that requested the meeting. Moreover, the mission shared the flags of the six council countries requesting the meeting — the UK, U.S., France, Ireland, Norway and Albania.
The emergency conference has been summoned by the US, UK, France, Albania, Ireland, Norway. “UN Security Council meeting called to examine the Ukraine humanitarian situation, at 3 pm ET today,” as reported by ANI.
This step arrives in the wake of Russia disclosing a proposed Security Council resolution on Tuesday that would demand insurance for civilians “in vulnerable situations” in Ukraine and safe passage for humanitarian aid and people pursuing to flee the country but without citing the war.
The draft resolution would also emphasize the want for “the parties concerned” to concede on humanitarian pauses to rapidly vacate “all civilians,” but it never recognizes the parties,
The resolution is predicted to be voted on by the council Friday. Russia submitted its draft a day after France and Mexico declared that a humanitarian resolution on Ukraine that they co-sponsored was being pushed to the 193-member General Assembly, after two weeks of meetings on the draft in the 15-member Security Council.
The France-Mexico draft resolution would request “an immediate termination of hostilities” and grieve “the dire humanitarian consequences of the hostilities against Ukraine.” Those conditions are not in the Russian text, and the France-Mexico solution would almost clearly have led to a Russian veto if put to a vote in the committee.
Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, tweeted Tuesday that the Russian draft “has a few glaring mistakes. For example, the truth is that Russia is the aggressor here, and it is Russia’s invasion driving this humanitarian war.”
Deputy Russian ambassador Dmitry Polyansky reacted in a tweet Thursday telling, “Good ruse!” and asking the UK to provide examples where U.N. humanitarian resolutions quoted “aggressions” or “invasions.”
The Russian Mission had announced a vote on their resolution could take a position as early as Wednesday, but some council members wished to talk over the text and there was a secure meeting of council experts Wednesday morning. Russia then raised to halt the vote, and the United Arab Emirates, which carries the council presidency this month, said it is now slated for Friday.
