A New Global Struggle?

The humanitarian phase quickly gave way to the initial United Nations Response phase, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was discussed at the United Nations, first at the Security Council and later, at the General Assembly. The vote on the Security Council resolution condemning Russia’s invasion and demanding the immediate withdrawal of its military forces saw eleven members vote in favour, one against, and three abstentions. Russia’s single negative vote was a veto of that resolution. This resulted in the resolution being taken to the UN General Assembly. This was done under the Uniting for Peace arrangement, which allows the UN General Assembly to consider issues relating to maintenance of international peace and security, when the Security Council fails to act because of lack of unanimity among the five permanent members. The General Assembly adopted that vote by 141 in favour, 5 against, 35 abstentions, and 12 absent votes. 28 African countries voted in favour, one against, 17 abstentions and eight absent. The lack of a unified bloc vote by African countries has attracted much attention, with one analyst noting that the existence of four African voting ‘camps’ for the resolution reflects nuance and complexity in individual countries’ foreign policies, and another calling on Africa to abandon neutrality in the aftermath of the Russian invasion.