New York, March 28 (RHC-ITAR-TASS)- Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said: 'A number of countries came under heavy pressure from Western states in the run-up to the UN General Assembly's vote on a draft resolution affirming Ukraine's territorial integrity.'
However, Churkin added, 'the results of the vote on the Ukraine resolution in the UN General Assembly on Thursday, March 27, show that Russia is not isolated.'
'A very large number of countries complained that they were subject to colossal pressure on the part of Western powers in order to make them vote in favor of supporting this resolution. Obviously, this pressure tactic, which has been used by our Western colleagues, had a certain effect, and some countries voted in favor of the proposed resolution, albeit reluctantly,' the Russian representative at the UN said.
He also said that the results of the vote on the Ukraine resolution in the UN General Assembly show that Russia is not in isolation.
'This is a rather good result for us. We have earned a moral and political victory. There can be no question of Russia's isolation in this situation,' the diplomat said.
The draft resolution, which was submitted by Ukraine with the help of Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Lithuania and Poland, was supported by 100 nations at the UN General Assembly vote. Eleven nations (Armenia, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe) voted against, with 58 abstentions (among them China, Argentina, India, Brazil, Pakistan, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, and Kazakhstan).
Unlike UN Security Council resolutions, those adopted by the UN General Assembly are not binding and are advisory in nature.
The resolution is 'confrontational in nature', according to the Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin.
Churkin believes that the document 'is trying to call into doubt the significance of the referendum in Crimea, which he said, has already played its historic role.'
'There is a clear tendency. Whereas some of our Western colleagues started to speak about Russia's isolation after the vote at the [UN] Security Council, here it is obvious that there is no isolation,' Churkin said.
