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Russia's diplomat accuses West of 'arm twisting' in UN vote isolating Moscow

Sunday, 26 February 2023 6:20 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 26 February 2023 11:29 AM ]

Opposition to the war in Ukraine remains strong among United Nations member states (Photo by Reuters)

A Russian senior diplomat at the United Nations has accused the West of “cowboy” methods and “arm twisting” of some countries during last week's US General Assembly vote that demanded Moscow withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

"The methods of achieving the result are again 'cowboy'," Dmitry Polyansky, said on the Telegram messaging platform on Sunday, adding that a number of representatives from "developing" countries complained to the Russian mission about pressure from their Western colleagues, who are allies of Kiev.

"According to our calculations, almost 30 pairs of arms were twisted," Polyansky said.

On Thursday, the 193-member UN General Assembly completely isolated Russia, calling on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the war for a "comprehensive, just and lasting peace" in line with the founding UN Charter.

Thirty-two countries including Iran abstained from voting, while seven countries, including Russia, voted against the resolution.

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Russia has accused the West of being prepared to sacrifice Ukraine and the developing world in order to beat Russia and maintain global power.

“In this desire of theirs to defeat Russia in any way possible, they cannot just sacrifice Ukraine, they are ready to plunge the entire world into the abyss of war,” Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said in the UN General Assembly special meeting on Wednesday.

Nebenzya said it’s not Ukraine that is fighting Russia, but rather it is a collective West. He said the West is closing its eyes on “neo-Nazism in Ukraine”, and only Russophobia is growing.

“All decorum is set aside, and the goal is to inflict strategic defeat on my country. The US thinks the planet is their turf,” the Russian envoy said.

Friday marked a year since Russia launched what it calls “a special military operation” to “denazify” and “demilitarize” Ukraine.

Many countries, including the US, Germany, France, and the UK, have been fanning the flames of the conflict by sending Kiev tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons, including rocket systems, drones, armored vehicles, tanks, and communication systems.

Western countries have also imposed a slew of economic sanctions on Moscow. The Kremlin has said the sanctions and the Western military assistance will only prolong the war.

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