India votes to reject Russia's demand for secret ballot on resolution on Ukraine

India voted to reject Russias demand for a secret ballot in the UN General Assembly on a draft resolution to condemn Moscows illegal annexation of four regions of Ukraine with New Delhi favouring a public vote on the text along with over 100 other nationsThe 193member UN General Assembly on Monday voted on a motion by Albania that action on the draft resolution that would condemn Russias illegal socalled referendums and attempted illegal annexation of the Donetsk Kherson Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine be taken by a recorded voteRussia had demanded that the resolution be voted upon by secret ballotMoscows demand for a secret ballot was rejected after 107 UN member states including India voted in favour of a recorded voteOnly 13 nations voted in favour of Russias call for a secret ballot while 39 abstained Russia and China were among the countries that did not voteAlso Read Russia strikes Kyiv other Ukrainian cities many dieAfter the motion to hold a recorded vote was adopted Russia appealed against the ruling of the president of the general assemblyA recorded vote on Russias appeal was held and India was among the 100 nations who voted against the challenge made by MoscowRussia then sought reconsideration of the decision to adopt the motion submitted by Albania for a recorded voteThe General Assembly decided not to reconsider the motion after 104 nations including India voted against such a reconsideration while 16 voted in favour and 34 abstainedRussias Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia said the UN membership had become witnesses to an outrageous fraud in which the president of the general assembly unfortunately played a key roleWe were not given the floor to make a point of order the indicator light at our seat is still on our statement was distorted and now UN member states are being robbed of their right to express their opinion freelyThis is an unprecedented manipulation undermining the authority of the general assembly and the United Nations as a whole Of course in such circumstances we opted to not take part in the vote he saidIndia last month had abstained while Russia vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution tabled by the US and Albania to condemn Moscows illegal referenda and declared the annexation of four Ukrainian territories as invalidThe 15nation UN Security Council had voted on the draft resolution on Illegal SoCalled Referenda in Ukraine hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin in a ceremony in the Kremlin had signed treaties to annex the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk Donetsk Kherson and ZaporizhzhiaThe resolution failed to get adopted as permanent UNSC member Russia vetoed itOf the 15nation council 10 nations voted for the resolution and China Gabon India as well as Brazil abstainedFollowing Russias veto US Ambassador to the UN Linda ThomasGreenfield vowed to continue to pursue accountability at the United Nations in the General Assembly where every country has a voteUN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi reconvened the emergency special session on Ukraine where a senior US administration official had said that the European Union on behalf of a crossregional drafting group of several dozen UN member states was working on a resolution to be introduced in the assembly and considered at the emergency special session to condemn Russias actions as a clear violation of the UN Charter and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrityThe draft resolution would repeat the demand that Russia withdraws its forces from Ukraine and from the wartorn countrys internationally recognised borders and cease its unprovoked war of aggression against UkraineThe resolution would also call upon all states international organisations and United Nations specialised agencies not to recognise any alteration by Russia of the status of any or all of the Donetsk Kherson Luhansk or Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine and to refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognising any such altered statusThe action in the UNGA came hours after Russia carried out strikes against multiple Ukrainian cities including Kyiv where at least 10 people were killed and around 60 others wounded across UkraineIn New Delhi External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the escalation of hostilities was in no ones interest and noted that India stood ready to support all such efforts aimed at deescalation of the situationIndia is deeply concerned at the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine including the targeting of infrastructure and deaths of civilians he said urging the immediate cessation of hostilitiesIndia has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and maintained that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogueIndia has abstained on votes on the Ukraine conflict in the UN General Assembly and the Security CouncilThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or 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