A showdown over Ukraine between the United States and its longtime European allies played out in the United Nations on Monday, as the United States opposed an effort to condemn Russian aggression and call for the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.
After losing a vote on Ukraine in the U.N. General Assembly, the United States won approval in the U.N. Security Council for its own resolution calling for an immediate peace, without mentioning the Russian invasion of Ukraine or assigning any blame. Security Council resolutions, though sometimes flouted, are considered legally binding, giving added weight to President Trump’s push to negotiate an end to the war.
In both the General Assembly and the Security Council, the United States and some of its closest allies, including Britain and France, were in opposing camps on Monday, a remarkable public fissure between countries that have typically stood together when it comes to Russia and Europe’s security. Coming on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it demonstrated the sharp turn in U.S. foreign policy under President Trump.
The U.S. “resolution puts us to the path to peace,” said Dorothy Camille Shea, the interim chargé d’affaires representing the United States, after the Security Council vote. “Now we must use it to build a peaceful future for Ukraine, Russia and the international community.”
But Britain’s ambassador, Barbara Woodward, in explaining its opposition to the measure, said: “The terms of the peace must send a message that aggression does not pay. This is why there can be no equivalence between Russia and Ukraine in how this council refers to the war.”
The face-off at the United Nations began with a three-page resolution introduced by Ukraine, demanding Russian withdrawal, calling for a “comprehensive, lasting and just peace,” and for accountability for Russia’s war crimes.
Three western diplomats and a senior U.N. official said that the Trump administration had tried last week to persuade Ukraine to withdraw its resolution, and when that failed the administration attempted to negotiate with European allies on a text that it would support.
But on Friday afternoon amid negotiations, the United States told its European allies that it planned instead to put forth its own resolution. Days earlier President Trump had called Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, a “dictator” and falsely asserted that Ukraine had started the war.
European diplomats said they were furious that their longtime ally had abandoned the talks and sided against them.
The U.S. resolution was three short paragraphs. It did not mention Russia’s aggression or condemn the invasion. It mourned the loss of life on both sides and said that the United States “implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.”
When the U.N. General Assembly took up the dueling measures on Monday, it approved the Ukrainian resolution by a vote of 93 nations in favor to 18 against, with 65 abstaining. The Assembly broke out into applause.
Among the 18 countries that voted against Ukraine’s resolution were Russia, the United States, Israel, Hungary, Haiti, Nicaragua and Niger.
“This is a moment of truth, a historic moment,” Mariana Betsa, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, told the General Assembly, one that would define the future of Ukraine and the free world.
But Ms. Shea, the U.S. representative, noted that previous U.N. resolutions that condemned Russia and called for it to withdraw had failed to alter the course of a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
“Those resolutions have failed to stop the war,” said Ms. Shea. “It has now dragged on for far too long, and at far too terrible a cost to the people in Ukraine, in Russia, and beyond.”
When the General Assembly took up the U.S. resolution, it approved three amendments by European countries, adding language that called out Russia as the invading aggressor. The Assembly then approved the amended resolution by a vote of 93 to 8, with 73 abstentions. The United States abstained on the amended version of its own resolution.
Hours later, the clash shifted to the 15-member Security Council, where the Trump administration once again sought approval of its resolution that did not lay blame for the war.
U.S. allies tried and failed to postpone a vote on the measure, which Ms. Shea called it “elegant in its simplicity.” Then they tried to amend the resolution, much as they had in the General Assembly, to be more favorable to Ukraine, but Russia exercised its veto power to defeat those attempts.
Finally, the Security Council voted on the U.S. resolution as it was introduced, approving it by a vote of 10 to 0, with 5 abstentions. Rather than use their own veto power, Britain and France were among those that abstained.
Nicolas de Rivière, France’s ambassador, said his country supports a just peace, “and not a capitulation of the victim.”
“There will be no peace and security anywhere if aggressions are rewarded and if the laws of the jungle wins,” he said.
Richard Gowan, the U.N. director for the International Crisis Group, which researches and monitors armed conflicts, said the United Nations had not seen such a consequential split between the U.S. and Europe since the war in Iraq, and that the current division was more pointed because it involved the security of Europe.
“European diplomats are livid with how the U.S. has maneuvered against them,” said Mr. Gowan. “The E.U. and Ukraine tried to keep Washington in the loop while drafting their resolution. The way the U.S. swung in with its own texts very aggressively at the last moment has left the Europeans off-balance.”