The UN General Assembly should adopt a resolution to achieve peace in Ukraine. According to it, the basis of a peaceful settlement is the restoration of territorial integrity and the guarantee of Ukraine's sovereignty.
On the one hand, the resolution does not have a corresponding binding force. On the other hand, it is hardly possible to find any structure equal in its authority to the General Assembly, which can claim to express the will of all the sovereign states of the world. About this Channel 24 political scientist said
Why the resolution is important for Ukraine
According to Oleshchuk, the resolution follows in the context of Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan, which was made public earlier. It, in particular, provides for the achievement of peace on the basis of the restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine in full, the punishment of war criminals and compensation for Ukraine for all the destruction caused by Russia. All these issues must be resolved.
“It is more general than Zelensky's plan. However, it meets his key principles,” the political scientist says.
According to the calculations of Ukrainian diplomacy, such a resolution has the final point in all these plans to promote for Ukraine some kind of ceasefire, some kind of freezing of the conflict, a truce, which Russia is actively engaged in now because of its many agents of influence.
Answering this in the form of a resolution is a very powerful argument in any discussion about the need for some sort of peace talks. Ukraine can say: “Okay, we're not against it. But we can only negotiate according to the resolution.” I think this is the key idea, Oleshchuk notes.
Ukraine will be able to appeal to this document with partners and mediators. It is clear that there may be attempts at certain political games and so on.
“It is very important for Ukraine to keep the initiative, including the diplomatic one. It is necessary to prevent Russia from making attempts to intercept this initiative. It is trying to mobilize various states around itself as much as possible so that they at least somehow declare support for Russia,” the political scientist explained.
The aggressor state is trying to appropriate the theme of the peace talks. This is a paradox, Oleshchuk notes, because Russia started this war and led to all the negative consequences.
“But now in the international environment, she wants to position herself as if she wants peace. Of course, this is a complete lie and total manipulation, but, obviously, this can affect someone.
It is important for Ukraine to knock out this argument. In fact, no one in the world is as interested in peace as Ukraine is. But this should be peace, and not a respite for the aggressor, so that he pulls up reserves, teach “mobiles”, reopen more tanks and after a while, throw it back on Ukraine,” the political scientist states.
Therefore, by raising the issue of adopting a resolution, Ukraine is taking the lead in ending the war. “It's not Russia that wants some kind of peace, but Ukraine doesn't. It's the opposite. It's just that Russia is engaged in disgusting manipulations, in fact, as always,” Oleshchuk summed up.
What is known about the draft UN resolution
- On the anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UN General Assembly, which includes 193 members, should adopt a resolution on the achievements of peace in Ukraine. The document emphasizes that its basis is “the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
- General Assembly Press Secretary Paulina Kubiak said that the emergency session of the General Assembly on Ukraine will begin on February 22. It is expected that dozens of speeches will last until February 23, and voting will take place on the same day.
- Earlier, it was said that Volodymyr Zelensky wants to come to the meeting. However, a new big offensive could prevent this.
