Wassilij Nebensja has demonstrated his acting talent several times in the past few days.

On Monday, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations made another theatrical appearance.

Before the start of a UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, he interrupted a press conference to say he had an important phone call to take.

After the phone call, he turned back to the assembled journalists: he had just learned that Washington was once again treating his country's permanent mission with hostility.

Twelve Russian diplomats in New York have been declared undesirable;

they would have to leave the country by March 7th.

The United States would thereby "grossly violate their obligations under the host country agreement".

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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However, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki pointed out that the move had been in the pipeline for months;

the United Nations and the Russian mission were informed.

The twelve people are employees of the Russian intelligence services, who have violated their residence privileges through their espionage activities.

Weeks ago, New York had become a sideshow of the Ukraine crisis.

For a week now, the international community on the East River has been demonstrating how much Moscow has isolated itself as a result of its war of aggression.

In other words, the international community is making an effort, because not everyone is going along with it.

The stage shifted from the Security Council to the General Assembly on Monday.

The member states began their debate on a Ukraine resolution in an emergency session after Russia vetoed a resolution in the Security Council on Friday, as expected.

Of the 15 members in the most important UN body, eleven voted in favor of the draft – China, but also India and the United Arab Emirates abstained.

The draft was intended to "condemn" or "regret" Russia's aggression.

In response to the veto, the emergency session of the General Assembly was called for Sunday.

The permanent members of the Security Council cannot veto this.

There have only been ten such meetings in the history of the United Nations.

However, their resolutions are not binding under international law.

A vote was expected on Wednesday.

The supporters of the resolution, who come mainly from Europe, North America and Africa, are hoping for the approval of more than a hundred countries.

It requires a two-thirds majority of the States present.

The authors of the resolution have priced in Venezuela, Syria and Cuba on Russia's side.

The fact that China is evading, not backing an action supported by America, but also does not want to embrace Russia in this situation, is also the case.

After all, Beijing's UN ambassador Zhang Jun said they were deeply concerned about the latest developments.

China believes that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states should be respected and supports Moscow and Kyiv's negotiations.

Former Australian Prime Minister and China expert Kevin Rudd sees this as an "impossible balancing act".

In the West, the behavior of several states, which are acting for realpolitik reasons, is causing outright irritation.

This is especially true for India, which President Joe Biden called on to counter Russia's "naked aggression" in vain.

Delhi's abstention is uncomfortable for Washington because the country is a member of the anti-China Indo-Pacific Quad Alliance.

Washington, but also the other members Japan and Australia fear a loss of credibility.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided not to jeopardize his country's traditionally close ties with Moscow, which date back to the Cold War era.

The abstention of the United Arab Emirates in the Security Council had a very specific reason: the Yemen conflict.

Though Moscow is close to Tehran, the Russians supported extending the arms embargo against the Houthi rebels on Monday.

Abu Dhabi did not want to jeopardize this vote.

Western representatives accused the country of cynical behavior.

Brazil is also causing astonishment in the West.

After Ambassador Costa Filho at the beginning of last week merely asked the parties to the conflict to comply with the United Nations Charter, but avoided calling Russia an aggressor, the country approved the resolution tabled by America and Albania on Friday.

Since then, however, diplomats in New York have watched with concern as President Jair Bolsonaro has rushed to emphasize his country's neutrality, citing its heavy reliance on Russian fertilizer supplies.

The case of Israel was dealt with rather discreetly.

The country, which currently does not sit on the Security Council, decided last week not to act as a co-sponsor of the resolution, which 87 other states had done.

The background is the security coordination that Israel has maintained with Russia in Syria since its intervention in 2015.

Washington was believed to understand the position.

America's UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield conveyed the disappointment of the Biden government to her Israeli colleague on Friday.

In the General Assembly, Israel wanted to support the resolution.