The United Nations General Assembly on Monday adopted a non-binding resolution in favor of a mechanism for reparations by Russia for the human and material destruction caused by its invasion of Ukraine.
Unlike the Security Council, where Russia has a right of veto, Moscow could not oppose the adoption of this resolution, supported by Ukraine, Canada, the Netherlands and Guatemala, and voted with 94 votes, less than the 143 to condemn the
"illegal annexations"
of Russia on October 12.
Fourteen countries voted against, including Russia, China, Cuba, Mali or Ethiopia, while seventy-three countries abstained, mainly from the African continent, but also Brazil, Israel or India.
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Claims for compensation
This resolution demands that Russia be
“held responsible for any violation”
of international law and the United Nations Charter in Ukraine, and that it
“assumes the legal consequences of all its illegal acts at the international level, in particular by repairing the damage »
material and human.
It also establishes
"the need"
to create,
"in cooperation with Ukraine, a reparation mechanism"
and
"an international register of damages to list (...) evidence and information relating to claims for compensation"
of natural, legal and state persons of Ukraine.
“Ukraine will have the heavy task of rebuilding the country and recovering after the war.
But this recovery will never be complete without a feeling of justice for the victims of the Russian war”
, launched from the platform of the General Assembly, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the decision taken at the UN.
"From the liberation of Kherson to the diplomatic victory in New York - the United Nations General Assembly has just given the green light to the creation of a mechanism for reparations by Russia for the crimes committed in Ukraine"
, he said. he stated, on Twitter.
"The abuser will pay for what he did!"
, he added.
At the United Nations headquarters in New York, the Russian representative on the contrary denounced a desire by Western countries to legitimize in advance the use
of “billions of dollars”
of frozen Russian assets to sanction Moscow, including for the purchase arms to Ukraine.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: Russian war crimes in the sights of justice
Questioned before the vote, Richard Gowan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, explained to AFP that
"the resolution would not be binding, but that it would offer a political basis to Ukraine in order to prepare the land to obtain reparations from Russia
.
Thus, he added,
“the register of proposed damages would make it possible to quantify what is owed to Ukraine”.
During his speech, the Ukrainian ambassador took the example of the Compensation Commission set up by the UN between 1991 and 2022 and which enabled Kuwait to recover from Iraq 52.4 billion dollars in reparations for the damage caused by its invasion in August 1990. A commission established by the Security Council.
