Bangladesh abstained from voting as UN resolution was brought not to end war: FM

The draft resolution on the Russia-Ukraine conflict brought to the UN General Assembly was not to end the war, but to blame it, said Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen at a press conference on Sunday.

The press conference was held at the state guest house the Padma on the occasion of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to the United Arab Emirates. The prime minister is scheduled to leave for the United Arab Emirates on Monday.

Asked why Bangladesh abstained from voting on the draft resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, the foreign minister said, "If you read the draft resolution, you will see that it was not to stop the war. It was to blame a person. We want peace. We do not want war anywhere. That is why we have told the United Nations that we are deeply concerned about what is happening."

Bangladesh said it is deeply concerned over the recent escalation of violence in Ukraine and such violence would seriously impact the peace and stability of the whole region.

Bangladesh was one of 35 countries that abstained from voting on a resolution at the UN General Assembly recently.

Regarding the five Bangladeshi nationals who posted a video from Ukraine on Facebook that recently went viral, the foreign minister said, "They had been arrested in Ukraine for not having any valid documents and are currently in an Ukranian detention centre."

"The Bangladesh Government, as well as the Polish Government, are trying to repatriate them to Bangladesh immediately," he said, adding, "They are still there (detention centre). We are trying to get more information. We will begin our efforts to bring them back once we get more information."

"We have talked to our Ambassador who is in charge. We are trying to get their information and scrutinizing their statements as they claimed in the video that they are kept forcibly there by the Ukrainian government as a human shield," he said.

Earlier, there were allegations that many nationals of different countries are being held hostage in Ukraine to be used as human shields in the war with Russia.

In Zhuravychi, only 130km away from the border shared by Ukraine and Belarus, about 120 people, including women and children from different nations, have been stranded in a former detention centre turned camp.

Among them, five are Bangladeshis.

"We have been tortured, and they took away our phones. I somehow managed to hide this phone, which came as a blessing as I am being able to talk to you. They took away our phones to stop us from contacting the media. They imprisoned us and kept us here as hostages. We are being used as human shields. They do not even give us enough food to eat," said Riyad Malik, one of the five stranded Bangladeshis in the Facebook video.

In reply to a query, Momen said, "The body of engineer Md Hadisur Rahman has been preserved in Ukraine and efforts are underway to bring back the body home. It might take some time to bring it to Bangladesh."

Earlier, Bangladeshi ship Banglar Samriddhi, with 29 sailors, was stranded in the Olvia Port from 23 February. After eight days, the third engineer of the ship, Hadisur Rahman, was killed in a rocket attack on the ship last Wednesday evening.

The foreign minister also said 28 crew members of the ship are now in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, after being evacuated from Ukraine through an initiative of the Bangladesh embassy in Romania.

He said at least 100 Bangladeshis are still stuck in Ukraine.