US, Russia, Belarus and North Korea vote against resolution as 93 countries vote in favor, spurning rival US resolution. The United Nations general assembly has backed a resolution drafted by Ukraine and the European Union condemning Russia on the third anniversary of its full-scale invasion, spurning a rival US resolution reflecting Donald Trump’s split with Europe and growing union with Vladimir Putin.
The United States, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the EU-Ukrainian resolution underlining an extraordinary shift in US policy since the US president’s election that has largely absolved the Russian president of responsibility for the invasion.
In the vote, 93 countries supported the joint European resolution that named Russia an aggressor state and called on it to remove its troops from Ukraine, while 18 countries including the US and Russia voted against. The vote came as Trump met with Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Monday and the two spoke with G7 leaders to discuss peace talks to end the war and the growing gulf between Washington and European capitals over the future of the Nato alliance.
Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, warned this weekend that Europe should seek greater independence from the United States and said it was an “absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA”.
Macron told reporters outside the White House that the G7 call was “perfect” but did not offer other details. Trump released a statement in which he said that all members of the G7 had said they wanted to achieve peace and that the war would never have happened if he had been president.
Trump has quickly moved to direct talks with Putin that have eschewed Ukraine and has also sought to strong-arm Kyiv into a “critical minerals and rare-earths deal” to recoup the cost of US support for Ukraine in the three years since Putin launched his full-scale invasion.
“I am in serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the War, and also major Economic Development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia,” Trump said on Monday. “Talks are proceeding very well!”.
The UN votes on Monday were mostly symbolic. The US resolution was three paragraphs long and did not include any mention of Russia aggression, saying it “implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation”. The Russian ambassador to the UN had called the US resolution a “good move”.
The US sought a “simple, historic statement from the general assembly that looks forward, not backwards”, said Ambassador Dorothy Shea, the US chargé d’affaires at the UN. “A resolution focused on one, simple idea: ending the war. A path to peace is possible.
“Mr President, that is why the United States opposed putting forward another resolution,” she continued. “And that is why we cannot support Ukraine’s resolution, and we urge its withdrawal in favor of a strong statement committing us to end the war and work towards a lasting peace.”.
The US proposal did not call for a ceasefire or any concrete action because it believed that would increase resistance from Russia and Ukraine. Asked by a reporter if the US was seeking “global support for vague peace”, one state department official responded: “Absolutely. That’s what the UN is all about.”.
“This is a simple way to begin to acknowledge, and for everyone who agrees, that this is ending,” another official clarified. The US had sought to kill the Ukrainian co-sponsored resolution, and US diplomats had pressured EU and Ukrainian officials in foreign capitals this weekend to withdraw their resolution before Monday’s vote, according to cables to US embassies and reports in US media.
State department officials speaking on background said that the US was in discussions with the UK and France just hours before a vote in the UN security council on a resolution calling for peace that has been broadly dismissed by Ukraine and European countries as whitewashing Russia’s invasion of the country.
“President Trump is committed to ending the Russia-Ukraine war and to a resolution that leads to a lasting peace, not just a temporary pause,” the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in a statement on Friday. “The United States has proposed a simple, historic resolution in the United Nations that we urge all member states to support in order to chart a path to peace.”.
The UN vote was preceded by a diplomatic scramble that saw both EU and US diplomats seeking to shore up support from countries in Africa, Asia and South America. “We have been doing what we do as diplomats, which is going to capitals, a lot of engagement over the weekend from our career professional diplomats who are in each one of the capitals,” said a state department official. “We have seen several countries switch from removing their co-sponsorship of the Ukrainian resolution to support for the United States resolution. We are continuing that diplomacy relentlessly, and that will continue until we have a vote.”.
