UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2019) The UN General Assembly adopted a draft resolution sponsored by Ukraine on the issue of militarization of Crimean peninsula as 63 member states voted in favor of the resolution, 19 member states voted against and 66 abstained.
The draft resolution - dubbed "Problem of the Militarization of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, Ukraine, as well as Parts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov" - was put up for the vote on Monday evening. The resolution urges Russia to end immediately what it calls is a "temporary occupation" of the Crimean Peninsula and withdraw its military forces.
The resolution also condemns visits of Russian officials to Crimea and calls on member states and international organizations to avoid such visits unless agreed upon with Ukrainian authorities.
In addition, the resolution calls on Russia to return all weapons and equipment from three Ukrainian naval vessels - the Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yani Kapu - that it seized in November last year and encourages further release by Russia of all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens.
Armenia, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea, the Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe voted against the resolution.
Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said in remarks to the UN General Assembly the voting on the resolution was deliberately scheduled on the same day as the Normandy Four summit in Paris.
"In anticipation of this meeting [the Normandy summit], our Ukrainian colleagues did their best to create a favorable background - both in words and in deeds," Polynaksiy said. "Adoption of this resolution was meant to impair the constructive course of the Paris meeting."
The Normandy Four format was established in June 2014 to mediate the conflict in southeastern Ukraine, which started when the residents of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions refused to recognize the new Ukrainian government, saying it came to power as a result of a coup. Kiev then launched a military operation in the southeast.
Crimea rejoined Russia in 2014, after a referendum in which 96 percent of the population voted in favor of reunification. Kiev and the majority of Western countries refused to recognize the results of the referendum.
