The UN Security Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly defeated a Russian resolution that acknowledged Ukraine’s growing humanitarian needs -- but didn’t mention the Russian invasion that caused the escalating crisis which has left millions of Ukrainians in desperate need of food, water and shelter.
To be adopted, Russia needed a minimum of nine “yes” votes in the 15-member Security Council and no veto by one of the four other permanent members - the U.S., Britain, France and China.
But Russia got support only from its ally China, with the 13 other council members abstaining, reflecting Moscow’s failure to get widespread backing for its war in Ukraine, which marks its one-month anniversary Thursday.
The Russian defeat came on the same day the General Assembly started considering a resolution drafted by Ukraine and two dozen other countries and co-sponsored by nearly 100 nations which clearly states that Russia’s aggression is responsible for the growing humanitarian emergency.
The assembly was also to consider a rival South African resolution that doesn’t mention Russia and is similar to Moscow’s defeated council resolution. Action on those resolutions was delayed until Thursday because of the huge number of speakers.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the council before the vote that its resolution “is not politicized,” just like other Security Council humanitarian resolutions, and he categorically rejected a U.S. Claim that his country had no right to submit such a resolution.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield countered that Russia was “attempting to use this council to provide cover for its brutal actions.” “It really is unconscionable that Russia would have the audacity to put forward a resolution asking the international community to solve a humanitarian crisis that Russia alone created,” she said.
“Russia does not care about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions. ... If they cared, they would stop fighting. Russia is the aggressor, the attacker, the invader, the sole party in Ukraine engaged in a campaign of brutality against the people of Ukraine, and they want us to pass a resolution that does not acknowledge their culpability.”
Nebenzia took the floor again after the vote saying it exposed all countries “for whom politicisation of the humanitarian dossier” is more important than helping to get aid to Ukrainians. If diplomats go on to lament the lack of a ceasefire and provisions for evacuations, “we will remind you that they were before you, but you refused to vote in favor of them for political reasons,” he said.
Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun, explaining his country’s vote in favor of the Russian resolution, said council members should focus on humanitarian issues, “transcend the political differences’’ and try to reach consensus and “respond to the humanitarian crisis in a positive, pragmatic and constructive manner.”