1 month ago
Last Updated:February 25, 2025, 00:37 IST
Washington tabled another resolution, but it won only 73 votes compared to the 93 won by the Ukrainian resolution.
Vote results are displayed during the Eleventh Emergency Special Session draft resolution meeting in the United Nations General Assembly on the 3rd anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the UN headquarters in New York, US. (IMAGE: REUTERS)
Washington sided with Moscow to join 16 others voting against a resolution supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity on Monday. UN member states backed the resolution but faced staunch opposition from Washington, which pushed its own language that declined to blame Russia for the war or mention Kyiv’s borders.
The resolution, drafted by Ukraine and European countries, won 93 votes in favour and 18 against, with 65 abstentions reaffirmed the UN Assembly’s “commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine." The votes in support of Ukraine dropped compared to previous resolutions, according to an AFP report.
India abstained on the UN General Assembly draft resolution titled ‘Advancing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine’ tabled by Ukraine and its European allies that called for a de-escalation, an early cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution of the war against Ukraine.
The US move marked a significant departure; Washington staunchly threw its weight behind Ukraine at UN resolutions tabled during the tenure of former US president Joe Biden, who also helped Kyiv’s battlefield efforts by ensuring a steady supply of arms and ammunition.
The rival US resolution called for a “swift end" to the Ukraine conflict but omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territorial integrity and did not win support from UN General Assembly members.
The assembly amended it so heavily that Washington abstained when the reworked text came to a vote.
The amended US-drafted resolution won 93 votes in favour, while 73 states abstained and eight voted no.
Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, had called the unedited US text “a step in the right direction" amid a dramatic thaw between Russia and the United States under President Donald Trump.
Nebenzia praised Trump for realising Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “not at all interested in having peace in his country because he’s clinging to power."
Trump’s return to the White House last month has brought a dramatic reshuffling of the diplomatic cards, as he undertakes a clear rapprochement with the Kremlin while dismissing his Ukrainian counterpart as a “dictator".
“To make sure that this initiative is fully in line with the understandings arrived at during the Russian and American contacts at the highest levels, we introduce an amendment … about the need to eliminate the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis," Nebenzia told the assembly. “And this, by the way, was mentioned by President Trump several times."
The 15-member Security Council was also set to vote on the same US text later on Monday. A council resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, Russia, China, Britain or France to be adopted.
But France put forward a series of amendments to the US text, telling the General Assembly that Paris, along with European countries and Britain, would “not be able to support in its current form."
The countries, all backers of Ukraine, pushed to reword the US text to say that the “full-scale invasion of Ukraine" has been undertaken by Russia.
It also reaffirmed a commitment to Ukraine’s “territorial integrity" – which had been omitted from the US text.
The inviolability of Ukrainian territorial integrity was a cornerstone of previous resolutions passed by the Assembly, with the US, under former president Joe Biden, among its strongest supporters.
(with inputs from Reuters and AFP)
Location :United States, United Nations
First Published:February 25, 2025, 00:07 IST
News world In Big Policy Shift, US Sides With Russia On Ukraine War Resolution At UN; India Abstains
