Russia is now banking on the support of a small group of countries in the West such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
These supports became very clear at Wednesday’s emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA.
Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Bolivia joined several dozen other countries in abstaining during a vote to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The votes also included the demand for Moscow to withdraw its troops “immediately, completely and unconditionally,” from Ukraine.
Venezuela could not participate in the voting formally because the South American country has not paid its dues to the UN for several years.
But CNN reports that the country almost assuredly would have voted against the resolution or abstained if given the chance.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had earlier this week spoken by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has said multiple times that Putin has his “total support,” and had blamed the conflict to “destabilizing actions of NATO”.
Cuba and Nicaragua are long-time allies of Russia, with the bond between Cuba and Russia going back decades.
Cuba’s government has blamed the current conflict on the United States and NATO’s “increasingly offensive military doctrine that threatens peace.”
Meanwhile, Nicaragua was one of the first countries in the world to formally recognize the two breakaway regions of Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk.
For El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele was extremely vocal in the days leading up to Russia’s invasion, mocking US assertions that an invasion was imminent.
“The boy who cried wolf,” Bukele tweeted on Feb. 18, responding to US President Joe Biden, who said he believed Russia would invade in the next several days.
Since Russia has invaded, however, Bukele has remained silent on the matter.
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