In a major jolt for President Trump in 193 member United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the United States on Monday failed to get the U.N. General Assembly to approve its resolution urging an end to the war without mentioning Russian aggression. At the same time, in a major win for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, UN General Assembly approved European-backed Ukrainian resolution demanding Moscow immediately withdraw from Ukraine. Though the UNGA resolutions are not legally binding but such a voting result represents the world opinion barometer. However, the voting results also show some diminished support for Ukraine, whose resolution passed 93-18, with 65 abstentions. That’s lower than previous votes, which saw over 140 nations condemn Russia’s aggression. The vote on the amended U.S. resolution was 93-8 with 73 abstentions, with Ukraine voting “yes,” the U.S. abstaining and Russia voting “no.”
Shailesh Kumar, National Defence
New Delhi 24 February 2025
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa said her country is exercising its “inherent right to self-defense” following Russia’s invasion, which violates the U.N. 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. U.S. deputy ambassador Dorothy Shea, meanwhile, said multiple previous U.N. 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 U.N. member states to bring a durable end to the war,” Shea said.
The dueling proposals reflect the tensions that have emerged between the U.S. and Ukraine after President Donald 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 Zelenskyy 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. Zelenskyy responded by saying Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space.”
Since then, the Trump administration not only declined to endorse Ukraine’s U.N. resolution, but at the last minute proposed its own competing resolution and pressed its allies to support that version instead. It comes as Trump plans to host French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Washington. The U.S. also wanted a vote on its proposal in the more powerful U.N. Security Council. China, which holds the council presidency this month, has scheduled it for Monday afternoon. The General Assembly has become the most important U.N. body on Ukraine because the 15-member Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, has been paralyzed by Russia’s veto power. There are no vetoes in the assembly, and the Ukraine resolution, which is co-sponsored by all 27 members of the European Union, is almost certain to be adopted. Its votes are closely watched as a barometer of world opinion, but the resolutions passed there are not legally binding, unlike those adopted by the Security Council.
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