United Nations, Feb 25: In a sign of its relations with Western allies fraying, the US managed to get its resolution on Ukraine that did not name Russia as the aggressor adopted intact after failing in the General Assembly.
The resolution got through as drafted by the US only because three West European amendments failed, and the veto-wielding France and Britain abstained on the resolution on Monday, the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Stripped of the blame for Russia for the Ukraine War, this was the first resolution to be adopted by the Security Council on the conflict. The short resolution mourns the deaths in the “Russia-Ukraine” conflict, “implores” an early end to the conflict, and urges lasting peace between the two countries.
Even though it lacks specificity, the Council resolution, technically, is binding on members, unlike Assembly resolutions. US Charge d’Affaires Dorothy Shea said, “Today, we stand on the precipice of history with a solemn task — creating conditions to end the bloodiest war on the European continent since the successive cataclysms that spurred the creation of this Council.”
“This resolution puts us on the path to peace,” she said. As US President Donald Trump pursues his own diplomacy with Russia to end the war, he is against criticism of Russia so that assigning blame does not derail his peace efforts.
Russia’s Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia welcomed the new approach of the US and said its resolution “gives us a certain optimism.” “The militarising Europe today is the only player internationally which wants the war to continue,” he asserted.
However, the European allies of the US want to name Moscow as the aggressor. “If we are to find a path to sustainable peace, the Council must be clear on the war’s origins,” Britain’s Permanent Representative Barbara Woodward said.
Earlier, a similar resolution moved by the US was amended to name Russia as the invader, to the chagrin of Washington, which abstained on its own resolution. It also joined Russia in voting against an Assembly resolution proposed by Ukraine, which, however, got enough votes for adoption.
France proposed postponing the votes on the resolution at the Security Council to give more time for diplomacy but failed to get enough votes, and the body took up the resolution.
France proposed three amendments to the Council resolution as it had at the Assembly. This was going on while Trump and France’s President Emmanuel Macron were winding up their meeting at which Ukraine figured prominently in Washington with a news conference. Unlike in the Assembly, France’s amendments failed to get enough votes to be adopted or were vetoed by Russia in the Council.
An amendment proposed by Russia also failed. The resolution passed with ten votes and abstentions by five European countries. Explaining the abstention, Woodward said that Britain could not support the resolution because it did not make clear that Ukraine’s consent was needed for a settlement and that “there can be no equivalence between Russia and Ukraine.”
“But we share the ambition to find a lasting end to this war, supported by robust security arrangements that ensure Ukraine never again has to face Russia’s attack,” she added. (Arul Louis can be contacted at [email protected])
IANS