UN rejects US resolution urging end to war without noting Russian aggression

The United States has failed to get the UN General Assembly to approve its resolution seeking to end the war in Ukraine without mentioning Russian aggression.

The vote was seen as a win for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

It marked a setback for Donald Trump’s administration in the 193-member world body, whose resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as a barometer of world opinion.

But it also showed some diminished support for Ukraine, as a separate European-backed Ukrainian resolution demanding Russia immediately withdraw from Ukraine passed 93-18, with 65 abstentions.

That is lower than previous votes, which saw more than 140 nations condemn Russia’s aggression.

The United States had tried to pressure the Ukrainians to withdraw their resolution in favour of its proposal, according to a US official and a European diplomat.

They refused, and then the assembly added language to the US proposal making clear that Russia invaded its smaller neighbour in violation of the UN Charter.

The vote on the amended US resolution was 93-8 with 73 abstentions, with Ukraine voting “yes”, the US abstaining and Russia voting “no”.

Ukrainian deputy foreign minister Mariana Betsa said her country is exercising its “inherent right to self-defence” following Russia’s invasion, which violates the UN Charter’s requirement that countries respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations.

“As we mark three years of this devastation — Russia’s full invasion against Ukraine — we call on all nations to stand firm and to take… the side of the Charter, the side of humanity and the side of just and lasting peace, peace through strength,” she said.

US deputy ambassador Dorothy Shea, meanwhile, said multiple previous UN resolutions condemning Russia and demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops “have failed to stop the war”, which “has now dragged on for far too long and at far too terrible a cost to the people in Ukraine and Russia and beyond”.

“What we need is a resolution marking the commitment from all UN member states to bring a durable end to the war,” Ms Shea said.

The duelling proposals reflect the tensions that have emerged between the US and Ukraine after President Trump suddenly opened negotiations with Russia in a bid to quickly resolve the conflict.

It also underscores the strain in the transatlantic alliance with Europe over the Trump administration’s extraordinary turnaround on engagement with Moscow. European leaders were dismayed that they and Ukraine were left out of preliminary talks last week.

In escalating rhetoric, Trump has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator”, falsely accused Kyiv of starting the war and warned that he “better move fast” to negotiate an end to the conflict or risk not having a nation to lead. Mr Zelensky responded by saying Mr Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space”.

Since then, the Trump administration not only declined to endorse Ukraine’s UN resolution, but at the last minute proposed its own competing resolution and pressed its allies to support that version instead. It comes as Mr Trump hosts French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Washington.

The US also wanted a vote on its proposal in the more powerful UN Security Council. China, which holds the council presidency this month, has scheduled it for Monday afternoon.