States condemn Russian violations at UN meeting on Ukraine

2026-02-24 16:35:29

Summary
Dozens of states gather to show support for Ukraine
European diplomats walk out during Russian ambassador’s speech
UN General Assembly plans motion calling for truce and peace

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.

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“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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Emma Farge

Thomson Reuters

Emma Farge reports on the U.N. beat and Swiss news from Geneva since 2019. She has produced a string of exclusives on diplomacy, the environment and global trade and covered Switzerland’s first war crimes trial. Her Reuters career started in 2009 covering oil swaps from London and she has since written about the West African Ebola outbreak, embedded with U.N. troops in north Mali and was the first reporter to enter deposed Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh’s estate. She co-authored a winning story for the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize on Russia’s diplomatic isolation in 2022 and was also part of a team of journalists nominated in 2012 as Pulitzer finalists in the international reporting category for coverage of the Libyan revolution. She holds a BA from Oxford University (First) and an MSc from the LSE in International Relations. She is currently on the board of the press association for UN correspondents in Geneva (ACANU).

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