India abstains from voting on UN resolution against Russia

India has once again abstained from the voting on the United Nations Security Council draft resolution condemning Russia’s “illegal referenda” and annexation of four Ukrainian territories. China, Brazil and Gabon too abstained from the vote.

Though India abstained on the draft resolution, it called for an immediate cessation of violence in Ukraine and emphasised the need to find pathways for a return to the negotiating table, news agency PTI said.

The resolution failed to get adopted with Russia’s veto on it. Ten nations of the 15-nation Council voted for the resolution that sought to condemn Russia’s “organisation of illegal so-called referenda in regions within Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.”

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj added that New Delhi is deeply disturbed by the recent developments in Ukraine.

“We urge that all efforts are made by concerned sides for the immediate cessation of violence and hostilities. Dialogue is the only answer to settling differences and disputes, however daunting that may appear at this moment. The path to peace requires us to keep all channels of diplomacy open,” Kamboj said.

“We urge that all efforts are made by concerned sides for the immediate cessation of violence and hostilities,” she said.

The 15-nation UN Security Council on Friday voted on the draft resolution tabled by the US and Albania that condemns Russia’s “organisation of illegal so-called referenda in regions within Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.” The resolution declares that Russia’s “unlawful actions” with regards to the “illegal so-called referenda” taken on September 23 to 27 this year in parts of Ukraine’s regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya that are under Russia’s temporary control can have “no validity” and cannot form the basis for any alteration of the status of these regions of Ukraine, including any “purported annexation” of any of these regions by Moscow.

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