Just over a year after Vladimir Putin began waging an all-out war against Ukraine and its people, the world is ever-more divided in its condemnation of Russian aggression. While Moscow’s familiar allies have held firm, a growing contingent of states has drifted away from the hardline NATO position. Check Express.co.uk’s map below to see where each country stands.
On March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued Vladimir Putin with an arrest warrant for war crimes committed in Ukraine.
A total of 123 countries are currently signatories to the tribunal’s founding treaty, but Russia is not among them — nor is the US — making the likelihood of a trial slim. The impact of the ruling is, in this way, unlikely to be great.
The UN, which boasts 193 members, has also attempted to shore up universal condemnation of the invasion. Emergency sessions demanding a Russian withdrawal and a release of the four annexed eastern Ukrainian regions were voted against by five countries on more than one occasion.
However, while Moscow’s advances on the battlefield may have stalled, it has made considerable diplomatic progress, as the number of countries willing to denounce its actions whittles away.
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This means the US and EU-led bloc against Moscow makes up just 36.2 percent of the global population as of March 2023. Neutral countries, having risen in number from 32 to 35, now account for accounting for 30.7 percent.
Initially, Western-leaning powers such as Colombia, Turkey and Qatar have since slid into the neutral category in pursuit of economic gains. Agathe Demaris, global forecasting director at EIU said: “Russia (and China) is courting non-aligned, neutral countries in a bid to sow doubt about the impacts of sanctions on Russia and to leverage resentment against former colonial powers.”
The remaining 33.1 percent of people live in countries either leaning towards or endorsing Russia, which have increased in number from 29 to 35 over the past 12 months.
Moscow has gained the most ground in Africa, with nations such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Uganda shifting stances in Russia’s favour. Most notable is South Africa, which conducted military drills with Russian warships around its southern port of Durban last month.
