The U.N. General Assembly met in full emergency session Monday and held talks addressing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before promising to meet again to talk about the prospect of more talks to come.
The U.N. gathering came a full five days after hostilities commenced. No decision is expected at least until the end of this week.
The gathering opened with bowed heads and silence to remember those who have already payed with their lives due to Russia’s aggression in a conflict that has driven an estimated 500,000 people to flee Ukraine to the eastern edge of the European Union.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the representatives, saying of the Russian invasion “enough is enough.”
“The fighting in Ukraine must stop,” he added.
“If Ukraine does not survive … international peace will not survive,” Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told those at the assembly’s first emergency meeting since 1997. “Have no illusions. If Ukraine does not survive, we cannot be surprised if democracy fails next.”
Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, leaves the podium after speaking during an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, at United Nations Headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Kyslytsya expressed gratitude to those that had supported the request for an emergency special session of the assembly. For those who had not supported the request, including Russia, he said they should know that the most frequently heard warning in Ukraine today was “Attention. Air raids. Please proceed to shelters.”
Reflecting escalating global alarm, both of the U.N.’s major bodies — the 193-nation assembly and the smaller, more powerful Security Council — took the unusual step of holding simultaneous, hastily scheduled talks on the war, AP reports.
In Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council voted to hold its own urgent session.
The assembly session came three days after an attempt to condemn and stop Russia’s attack ran into a Russian veto in the Security Council, AP reported.
It will give all U.N. members an opportunity to speak about the war and with more than 110 signed up to do so, speeches are set to continue Tuesday.
The assembly, which allows no vetoes, is expected to vote later in the week on a resolution coordinated by European Union envoys, working with Ukraine.
Diplomats expect the U.N. to condemn Russia’s moves “in the harshest possible way.”