On Thursday, Ukraine and the West has managed to persuade majority of United Nations members to reject Russia's annexation of Crimea and dubbing the move as illegal. The New York Times said that the resolution presented at the UN General Assembly by the Eastern European country and supports United States and the European Union marked the latest campaign to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin of Russia for its consolidation of Crimea.
The paper said that Ukrainian resolution gathered 100 votes in favor, while 11 voted against it and 58 abstained. Although the two-page document has not identified Russia by its name, Ukraine referred to the country's March 16 referendum invalid and called out to member countries to not acknowledge the annexation.
Russia had said that Crimea was not supposedly part of Ukraine under a United Nations principle, which is the right of the peninsula's citizens to self-determination. The Times said the argument was contested by United States ambassador Samantha Power in a debate ahead of the secession vote. She said that annexation by coercion does not equal to self-determination. Ambassador Eduardo Ulibarri, on the other hand, had argued that small states like Ukraine are supported by international law to be able to defend its sovereignty, and that the resolution reaffirms that power.
Former American diplomat in the Bush administration Nicholas Burns said the Ukrainian resolution was a key pressure point by the US and the EU to drive its goal home on isolating Russia. He added, "This is critical for the U.S.-Europe strategy to isolate Putin and condemn him internationally for Russia's violation of the U.N. Charter in invading Crimea. It is also, indirectly, a warning to Putin to not go further in invading either Eastern Ukraine or Moldova or else face even greater global criticism."
The Times said that despite the fact that the Ukrainian resolution has no enforcement mandate, it also marked a first in the history of General Assembly votes as the US rarely garnered a majority vote after its Iraq invasion.
