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UNGA should respect decisions by member countries including Russia — diplomat

President of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly Dennis Francis said he had hoped the conflict in Ukraine would have come to an end already

UNITED NATIONS, September 9. /TASS/. The UN General Assembly should respect Russia’s sovereign decisions in the conflict in Ukraine, said Dennis Francis, president of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

"I don't think we have the capacity, nor do we have the mission to force the Russians to end the conflict in Ukraine", he said at a news conference. "The Russians like Ukraine, and like all of them, 193 member states are sovereign. They make their own decisions. They make them independently, and we have got to respect the fact that they make them independently."

Francis said he had hoped the conflict would have come to an end already.

"However, it has not, and in some ways it has grown," he said.

The 78th session of the UN General Assembly opened on September 5 and will end on September 10.