Russia fails to manipulate UN statistics related to Crimea – Kyslytsya

Russia's attempt to amend UN procedures to manipulate population statistics regarding Crimea has been thwarted, according to Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya.

He told Ukrinform that the failed initiative sought to challenge how the UN Secretariat classifies Crimea's population in line with international law and General Assembly resolutions.

"Every three years, the UN General Assembly approves the scale of contributions of member states to distribute the Organization's expenses for the next period. This time, it's for 2025-2027," the diplomat said.

He said that the process begins with the UN Secretary-General submitting a draft resolution, based on Secretariat statistics and recommendations from a specialized committee. Delegations then consult informally in the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly, making amendments if necessary.

"It is worth noting that from the very beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea, the UN Secretariat did not count the population of the peninsula as residents of Russia, as Moscow presented in its statistics. The Secretariat counted the population of Crimea as statistics regarding Ukraine, which is fully consistent with the resolutions of the General Assembly and the UN Security Council, as well as international law," Kyslytsya said.

He said that unhappy with the classification, Russia introduced an amendment just before the final vote on December 24.

"The Russians tried to emphasize that the UN Secretariat supposedly implements only resolutions that concern Ukraine, but does not comply with other resolutions, for example, on the island of Mayotte, Israel and Palestine, or on Kosovo, dated 1980-1990. Among other things, the Russian delegation proposed to hold UN program managers accountable for this," the diplomat said.

The Ukrainian delegation immediately made a statement on this issue, noting that Russia's initiative is not aimed at better compliance by the UN Secretariat with the resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly and the Security Council.

In the photo: Dmytro Tymoshenko

In a statement made by Dmytro Tymoshenko, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN, the delegation explained to the member states that Russia's real goal is to unfairly accuse the UN Secretariat of alleged violations of other resolutions and decisions. Ukraine categorically rejected the unfounded accusations against UN personnel, supported their work and stressed that these people should not be threatened for fulfilling their duties.

"It is very important for Ukraine that despite pressure from Russia, the UN Secretariat continues to take into account the statistics on Crimea as part of our territory. Because the UN member states then refer to these statistics when making further decisions," Kyslytsya said.

As a result, Russia's attempt to pass this amendment failed. After that, the Russian delegation asked the chair of the Fifth Committee to put the draft resolution to a vote without their proposals.

During the vote in the committee, 151 countries supported the document, with only five voting against it, including Russia, Belarus, the Comoro Islands, Nicaragua and Sudan. During the vote in the General Assembly, 157 countries voted in favor of the resolution without the Russian amendment, with the same five voting against it.

Photo credit: Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN