By Emma Farge
GENEVA, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Dozens of mostly Western states rallied behind Ukraine and condemned Russian aggression on Tuesday in a U.N. meeting in Geneva on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged allies from Kyiv to maintain their support as divisions among European partners over a fresh package of sanctions against Moscow overshadowed commemorations of the start of the conflict.
“What Russia has done and is doing in Ukraine right now is violating every principle in the book,” Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister, told a meeting on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council attended by dozens of countries including France, Britain, Canada, Japan and Peru. The U.S. did not appear to have sent a representative.
“Everything the U.N. stands for is being violated,” he added, ending his speech with “Glory to Ukraine!”.
Russia has given various reasons for sending troops into its neighbour, including needing to “demilitarise” Ukraine and respond to the U.S.-led NATO alliance’s eastward expansion in the years since the Soviet Union collapsed. Kyiv and its Western allies deny posing a threat to Russia, which they accuse of staging a land-grab.
Earlier, a group of mostly European diplomats walked out of a meeting of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva during a speech by Russian ambassador Gennady Gatilov. They gathered outside, holding the Ukrainian flag and wearing sashes in the national colours.
The president of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Annalena Baerbock, said that a motion was planned there expressing concern about Russia’s invasion and calling for an unconditional ceasefire and a lasting peace.
(Reporting by Emma Farge and Cecile Mantovani; editing by Friederike Heine and Kevin Liffey)
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