Mallika Dureja
NEW DELHI: Ukraine has asked India to support a proposed resolution that will be voted on by the UN General Assembly on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion. The resolution calls for an end to hostilities and a peace that protects Ukraine’s “sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity.”
Andriy Yermak, who is in charge of the Ukrainian president’s office, and Ajit Doval, who is in charge of national security, talked about this on the phone on Tuesday. Doval was told by Yermak what was going on in the war, including reports that Russia was getting ready for “certain offensive actions.”
According to a readout from the Ukrainian presidency, Yermak said that Ukraine wants as much support as possible for the resolution that will be voted on by the UN General Assembly on February 23. In particular, he said that support from countries in the Global South would be helpful.
“We value working with India very much. We think you will agree with our resolution because it says the right things about the inviolability of borders and the integrity of territories. Yermak said, “Our goals are clear and open. We don’t want a single centimetre of Russian land; we just want ours back.”
From the Indian side, there was no official word about the phone call.
Since the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has talked to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy several times. Modi has suggested that the two leaders talk to each other directly, and he told Putin at a meeting last September that “this is not a time of war.”
India has stayed out of most UN votes about Ukraine so far, and it hasn’t spoken out against Russia’s actions either. It has, however, asked that all states keep their independence and control over their own land.
The proposed resolution, called “Principles underlying a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine,” is broader than Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace plan, which he presented at the G20 Summit in Indonesia last November. The U.N. has 193 members. Representatives from dozens of countries will talk about it starting on Wednesday, and then the General Assembly will vote on it.
“We know that Russia is planning some offensive moves, and we are getting ready to fight back. The Russian army isn’t trying very hard, but the Ukrainian soldiers are being very brave and tough. We won’t give up until all of our lands are free. He said, “We only need weapons.”
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While Ukraine continues fighting on the battlefield, it has simultaneously proposed a 10-point peace plan with comprehensive answers to the “question of what needs to be done to end the war in a sustainable and just manner”, he said. Yermak said that the draught resolution was a document based on basic ideas like the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of states within internationally recognised borders.
Yermak stressed how important it is to make a new global security system that works well and replaces the one that doesn’t until February 24, 2022.
“This resolution is fundamental for us because it restores respect for international law and the UN Charter…It is very important to protect the territorial integrity of any state in the world in order to prevent any attempts by one country to appropriate the territory of another one in the future,” he said.
These principles are shared by India and a majority of countries, Yermak said. Ukraine also welcomes any initiatives that give a chance to end the war and restore the territorial integrity of the country, but these should not be “partial temporary solutions such as a ceasefire, but a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory”, he added.
