WASHINGTON — The U.N. General Assembly voted Wednesday to reprimand Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and demand that Moscow stop fighting and withdraw its military forces.
The General Assembly voted 141-5, with 35 countries abstaining, for the draft resolution, Aggression against Ukraine, which was co-sponsored by 94 countries. Only five nations voted against the measure: Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea.
"We believe this is a simple vote," the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said in her remarks Wednesday. "Vote yes if you believe U.N. member states, including your own, have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“Vote yes if you believe Russia should be held to account for his actions,” she said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Vote yes if you believe in upholding the U.N. Charter and everything this institution stands for.”
Russia vetoed a similar draft resolution last week in the Security Council.
Thomas-Greenfield accused Russian forces of moving "exceptionally lethal weaponry into Ukraine, which has no place on the battlefield," based on videos she had seen. She did not show the videos.
"That includes cluster munitions and vacuum bombs, which are banned under the Geneva Convention," she continued.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., announced Wednesday that they were offering separate resolutions urging the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice to investigate Putin for war crimes and crimes against humanity, charges that some critics have leveled for the use of weapons that Thomas-Greenfield described.
"There will come a day when the rule of law will trump the rule of the gun, and that day, I hope, will come sooner rather than later," Graham said at a news conference.
Graham said he hopes to garner bipartisan support for the resolution to hold Putin accountable.
"This is a proper exercise of jurisdiction. This is what the court was created for, because there is no venue absent this court, in my view, to hold Putin and those who follow his orders accountable," he said.
