UN General Assembly invalidates Crimean annexation

The United Nations General Assembly voted on March 27 to approve a nonbinding resolution that invalidates the Crimean referendum to secede from Ukraine. The vote was 100-11, with 58 countries abstaining. The two-page text didn’t identify Russia by name, but described the referendum as “having no validity” and calls on countries not to recognize the redrawing of Ukraine’s borders, the New York Times reported. Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia, called Russia’s actions “a direct violation of the United Nations Charter.”

Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin said Crimea should not have been part of Ukraine since it was part of Russia for centuries until 1954, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave the peninsula to Ukraine, at the time a Soviet republic. “Crimea was for many years an integral part of our country,” he said in an effort to appeal to other nations that have similar grievances over territory lost in the past.

Zenon Zawada: The U.N. resolution further isolates Russia from the international community for its Crimean annexation.