:Even as a million refugees have now fled Ukraine since the start of the war, U.N. says
The United Nations on Wednesday approved a non-binding resolution condemning Russia invasion of Ukraine and demanding that it withdraws its military forces. This is coming even as the UN announced that over one million Ukrainians refugees have fled across the borders of Ukraine since Russian forces invaded a week ago.
Wednesday’s vote follows after a series of speeches during which the majority of countries called on Russia to end the violence in Ukraine. The ongoing violence has continued for a week.
The resolution passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 141-5 with 35 abstentions. The five countries that voted against it were Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea.
This is happening as reports say the new total of refugees from Ukraine have spiked to a little more than 2% of the country’s total population of 44 million. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around half of the refugees are in Poland, with Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia being the other top destinations, while others have fled to various other European countries.
In a tweet on Wednesday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filipo Gandi, said, “In just seven days we have witnessed an exodus of over one million refugees from Ukraine to neighbouring
countries.”
Grandi added in his tweet: “For many millions more, inside Ukraine, it’s time for guns to fall silent, so that life-saving humanitarian assistance can be provided.”
Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, “The truth is that this war was one man’s choice and one man alone: President Putin.” She went on to add, “It was his choice to force hundreds of thousands of people to stuff their lives into backpacks and flee the country.”
“Those were President Putin’s choices,” she added. “Now it is time to make ours. The United States is choosing to stand with the Ukrainian people.”