Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, publicly stated last Friday that his nation will acquire four areas of Ukraine. They were referred to as “new territories of Russia” by him.
“The people who reside in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia [regions] are becoming into our citizens forever,” Putin declared in a statement to the Kyiv administration and its patrons in the West. He also urged Ukraine to meet with him for negotiations to stop the current conflict.
In response to Putin’s statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the annexation as a “violation” of international law and a “destructive escalation” in the seven-month conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The Charter is unambiguous, according to Guterres. The UN Charter’s tenets are broken “by any annexation of a State’s territory by another State brought about by the threat or use of force.”
US President Joe Biden denounced Russia’s action as “outright fraud” and against international law in Washington. “The United States Charter is being violated by Russia, and it is also expressing its disdain for all peaceful nations.” He further stated that the United States will always respect Ukraine’s internationally acknowledged boundaries.
“We will continue to back Ukraine’s attempts to restore control of its territory by fortifying its position militarily and diplomatically, including via the $1.1 billion in additional security aid the United States pledged this week,” the statement reads.
US sanctions were imposed on Russian officials and their families as a result of this action.
Following suit, the EU declared: “We firmly reject and clearly condemn Russia’s illegitimate annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.” The EU member states asserted that by taking this action, Russia is endangering world security.
As stated in the UN Charter and international law, they charged Moscow of “willfully undermining the rules-based international order and flagrantly violating the fundamental rights of Ukraine to independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.”
What about Israel?
I am glad to see the world community standing together against an oppressive nation or conduct that jeopardizes the interests of others and threatens their independence, sovereignty, security, and other fundamental rights. The international community’s condemnation of such transgressions by one state while celebrating and defending those committed by another is, however, both tragic and hypocritical. Why is Russia not permitted to acquire conquered territory but Israel is?
Israel annexed roughly 70,000 square metres of West Bank land to the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem and applied Israeli law there in violation of international law in June 1967, the Israeli rights organization B’Tselem has noted. Israel also occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, Palestinian East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip.
The sole action the world community took in reaction to this occupation and annexation was to pressure the UN into passing a number of resolutions declaring Israel’s actions “illegal” and demanding that Israel withdraw them. The UN Security Council at the time said that “any legislative and administrative steps and acts taken by Israel, including expropriation of land and assets thereon, which seek to affect the legal status of Jerusalem, are illegitimate.” The city’s status is something they “cannot change.”
Practical actions to put an end to Israel’s occupation and annexation of the Palestinian territory have never been done. Such a feeble response from the international community prompted the Israeli government to annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 and seized East Jerusalem on July 29, 1980.
