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The committee began with the re-statement of article 19 stating that a member’s voting rights may be suspended temporarily in the GA if the member state has not yet paid their arrears. As of today, there are 8 member states that did not meet article 19. If the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member, situations may be reconsidered. The GA moved forward with article 67 briefing on the situation in Ukraine, from Petro Poroshenko.

Poroshenko begins with a discussion of the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Russian aggression is a violation on the principals of the UN Charter with infiltration, militarized areas, and civilian imprisonment and torture within Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Emphasis was placed on the March 2014 referendum being corrupted, with the Russian government refusing to make statements on the referendum. Poroshenko speaks that there is no crisis in Ukraine, but ongoing military occupation and armed aggression by Russia against Ukraine. Delegates echoed that Russia should release all detained sailors in Russia from the issue regarding the Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait and condemns the actions of Russia.

The Russian Federation began their speech highlighting the name of this committee topic as misleading. Crimea is Russia. The Russian Federation states that “wherever President Poroshenko goes, there is gunfire,” and continues to emphasize that much of what previous delegates have accused against Russia were based on false accusations.

Meeting: General Assembly Session 73 Plenary 67 on Ukraine Territories and Member Appointments

Date/Location: 20 February 2019, General Assembly Hall

Speakers: Petro Poroshenko, Norway (on behalf of Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden), European Union (on behalf of its Member States and Albania, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and the Republic of Moldova), Poland, Estonia, Peru, Lithuania, Slovakia, Italy, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Moldova, Latvia, Canada, the United States, Liechtenstein, the Czech Republic, Georgia and Bulgaria.

Written By: WIT Representative Jessica Shi