Russia Suffers 'Crushing Defeat' At UN

For the first time in history, Russia was not elected to the International Court of Justice.

For the first time in history, the UN member states have denied the aggressor country Russia the right to administer justice on their behalf in the UN International Court of Justice. This was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Thus, the UN "began to cleanse itself from the harmful influence of Russia", which destroys international law rather than defends it, Zelensky emphasised.

Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN, Serhiy Kislitsa, called it a "historic event" and a "crushing defeat" for Russia.

"It is a crushing defeat for Russia that the representative of the aggressor country Kirill Gevorgyan was not chosen as a judge of the UN International Court of Justice. He lost to Romania's representative Bogdan Aurescu," Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN Serhiy Kislitsa commented on the event while speaking to the EP on Friday, November 9.

He said that overall this vote showed that Moscow still retains a small influence in the structure, as Gevorgyan won 77 votes.

The Ukrainian diplomat reminded that a judge from Russia will not be represented at the UN International Court of Justice for the first time since 1946.

"The vote in the General Assembly was a fiasco for Russia in the historical retrospective of the Organisation," Kislitsa stressed.

The representative of the Ukrainian state added that Moscow received support with 83 votes in the elections to the UN Human Rights Council, which took place in October. Although this was not enough for the election, it is "not insignificant from the point of view of assessing the world's readiness to fight for human rights".

Kislitsa said the aggressor country failed utterly in the UN Security Council vote - as a permanent member of the body, Moscow has special powers and influence over other members, but at no round did Russia receive more than 5 out of 15 votes.

By comparison, the United States received between 12 and 14 votes in each vote.