The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) has voted to hold a rare emergency special session of the General Assembly to debate the crisis engulfing Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. The meeting is set down for Monday at U.N. headquarters in New York.
Any resolutions agreed at the General Assembly will be non-binding, however the U.S. is looking to build on the 100 countries that voted to condemn Russia over its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
All 193 members of the global body will be given the chance to speak. Any that choose to do so will defy Russia after it voted against the resolution, but under U.N. regulations it did not have veto power to derail the referral of the war to the General Assembly.
The procedure is allowed under a 1950 resolution called “Uniting for Peace” and echoes growing international calls elsewhere for action to be taken sooner not later against Russia’s unprovoked aggression.
It allows for members of the Security Council to take over the General Assembly for a special session if the five permanent members — Russia, the United States, Britain, France and China — fail to agree among themselves to act together to maintain peace.
It will just be the 11th such session that the assembly has held, according to diplomats.
The day-long diplomatic exchange is expected to highlight the extent of Russia’s isolation in the international community over the deadly invasion of its neighbour.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya holds up a paper while addressing the United Nations Security Council meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York City on February 27, 2022. (ANDREA RENAULT/AFP/AFP via Getty Images)
“The council members who supported this resolution recognize that this is no ordinary moment,” said U.S. ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, AFP reports.
“These are issues that affect all member states and now in the General Assembly they can all make their voices heard on Russia’s war of choice,” she added.
Monday’s session will start at 10:00 am in New York (1500 GMT) and is expected to last at least all day.
It will go on as fighting continues across a number of fronts and the human cost of Russia’s aggression is exposed.
The session comes after last week’s UNSC meeting where Ukraine made an ambitious effort to have Russia ejected from the U.N. entirely.
On that occasion it argued Vladimir Putin’s government did not legally acquire the seat formerly held by the Soviet Union, as Breitbart News reported.
AFP contributed to this story