4 Countries Joined Russia in UN Vote on Ukraine Annexations

A general view shows voting results during a UN General Assembly meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Oct. 12, 2022. Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

The U.N. General Assembly voted on Oct. 12 in favor of condemning the Russian annexation of four Ukrainian areas amid the ongoing conflict, with four countries siding with Moscow.

Of the 193-member body, 143 voted in favor of a resolution to criticize Russia’s annexation and referendums last month. Thirty-five abstained, according to a photo posted by the German Foreign Office.

Syria, North Korea, Belarus, and Nicaragua were the only four nations to join Russia. China, India, Pakistan, and a number of African nations—including South Africa—abstained from voting, according to the tally. The close Russian allies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan abstained, while Moscow ally Turkmenistan didn’t vote.

Belarus is perhaps Russia’s closest ally, and its territory was used as a staging ground to invade Ukraine in February, while Syria has received significant military support from Moscow amid its decade-long civil war. North Korea shares a border with Russia and offered to deploy troops to Ukraine, and Nicaragua has enjoyed good relations with Russia since the Soviet Union supported the Marxist Sandinista revolution in the late 1970s.

Several days ago, President Vladimir Putin held a ceremony at the Kremlin and signed documents to make the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk part of the Russian Federation. Referendums, which were described as a sham by Western leaders, were held in those areas in September and asked residents if they wanted to join.

The symbolic resolution on Oct. 12 demands that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders,” according to a statement from the U.N.

The U.N.’s release erroneously stated that Eritrea—an East African country ruled by a one-party state since the early 1990s—voted against the resolution, but it abstained, according to the vote tally.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, who serves as Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.N., claimed the vote is a “historic moment,” according to The Associated Press.

President Joe Biden said in a statement that the vote demonstrates that the world “is more united and more determined than ever to hold Russia accountable for its violations.” It is “a clear message” that “Russia cannot erase a sovereign state from the map” and it “cannot change borders by force,” he said.

But Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, appealed to countries to vote against the resolution, calling it “a politicized and openly provocative document” and denouncing its sponsors as “unscrupulous Western blackmailers.”

Nebenzia added that the referendums were valid and noted that “the populations of these regions do not want to return to Ukraine.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.