Russia's UN diplomat accuses West of arm twisting in vote isolating Moscow

Reuters
·1 min read
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Feb 26 (Reuters) - Russia's senior diplomat to the United Nations accused the West on Sunday of "cowboy" methods and "arm twisting" of some countries during last week's United Nations General Assembly vote that demanding Moscow withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

The 193-member General Assembly of the U.N. on Thursday overwhelmingly isolated Russia, calling on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Moscow's invasion for a "comprehensive, just and lasting peace" in line with the founding U.N. Charter.

"The methods of achieving the result are again 'cowboy'," Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, said on the Telegram messaging platform.

He added that a number of representatives from "developing" countries complained to the Russian mission about pressure from their Western colleagues who are allies of Kyiv.

"According to our calculations, almost 30 pairs of arms were twisted," Polyansky said.

Polyansky did not provide any evidence for his accusations and there has been no public comments from developing countries about pressure on them to vote in support of the U.N. resolution.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Kim Coghill)