The 12-page resolution passed late on Wednesday calls for continued cooperation between the UN and the Council of Europe in a wide range of areas. It says that cooperation should be strengthened further in view of “unprecedented challenges now facing Europe following the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and against Georgia prior to that.”
The non-binding resolution also effectively welcomes the establishment by the Council of Europe of the “Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine” as well as the Strasbourg-based organization’s support for the creation of a “special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.”
The resolution was approved by 105 votes to 9, with 33 abstentions. The countries that voted against it included not only Russia but also the United States.
A Russian representative to the UN denounced the resolution during the debate that preceded the vote. She described the Council of Europe as a “platform for promoting pseudo-legal, legally null and void initiatives” against Russia. Moscow quit the human rights organization following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Armenia, which has long been allied to Russia, has previously abstained from at least three UN General Assembly resolutions that condemned the invasion and demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Armenian leaders for the first time publicly criticized the Russian military campaign in early 2024 amid a rapid deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations. In particular, Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian said that Yerevan “firmly supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” prompting an angry reaction from Moscow.
Moscow has not yet reacted to Yerevan’s decision to vote for the latest UN resolution. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Maria Zakharova, did not comment on it during a news briefing on Thursday.
