The UN Security Council will vote to convene a rare “emergency special session” of the 193-member General Assembly on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two days after Moscow used its veto to block a resolution on its aggression against Kyiv.
The 15-nation Security Council will meet on Sunday afternoon to hold a vote on the special session. This will be only the 11th such emergency session of the General Assembly since 1950.
The vote calling for the session will be procedural. So none of the five permanent members of the Council – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US – can exercise their vetoes.
President of the 76th session of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid, who was to attend the 49th regular session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, cancelled his trip “due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine and potential developments in the Security Council,” for the vote.
He also met on Saturday with Ukrainian Permanent Representative at the UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya after the veto on the draft resolution in the Security Council.
Kyslytsya briefed Shahid “on the security situation in Kyiv and the potential action he would be seeking in the General Assembly.” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also cancelled his scheduled trip to Geneva for the Human Rights Council meeting “due to the aggravating situation in Ukraine.”
The Security Council on Friday evening failed to adopt a resolution that would have deplored Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine after Moscow used its veto.
