Explained | Can NATO or UN send troops to help Ukraine amid Russia invasion?
As Russian troops continue to march through Ukraine, shooting at buses and carrying out missile strikes, over 352 Ukrainian civilians, including 14 children are said to have lost their lives and 1,684 people, including 116 children, have reportedly been wounded.
Russia's move to invade Ukraine resulted in several sanctions against the country and Russian banks being cut off from the SWIFT system. The measure is the strictest financial action yet against the Kremlin and is aimed at crippling the Russian economy.
Russia has received criticism from many nations for violating international law and the UN Charter. As Ukrainians hit the streets to defend their country, can NATO or the UNSC send their troops to help them in their war against the Russians?
In the case of the UN, the international body last week sought a diplomatic off-ramp to Russian military action, including near-daily press stakeouts by the Secretary-General, three emergency Council sessions and one meeting of the 193-member General Assembly, which saw speaker after speaker delivering a call for de-escalation. On Feb. 25, however, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have demanded that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops.
Russia is one of the five permanent members of the Council. The others are China, France, the UK and the US. A 'no' vote from any of the five permanent Council members stops action on any measure put before it. "The UN Charter was written with the express purpose of preventing a war like the one President Putin just started," the UNSC noted. "This war has brought, in just its first days, devastating losses of life – and Russia alone is accountable."
On Sunday, the Security Council voted to call for a rare emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, which will be held on Monday (Feb. 28, 2022). Only 10 such emergency special sessions of the General Assembly have been convened since 1950, following the adoption of resolution 377A(V), widely known as 'Uniting for Peace'. That text gives the Assembly the power to take up matters of international peace and security when the Security Council is unable to act because of a lack of unanimity among its five veto-wielding permanent members.
While Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they are believed to carry political weight as they express the will of the wider UN membership. So, in reality, the UNSC also cannot send troops to Ukraine.
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