Trump's Ukraine course: UN Security Council adopts pro-Putin resolution

US President Trump is initially unable to convince the 193 UN member states of his Ukraine policy. But things are different in the powerful Security Council.

The UN Security Council has voted for a Moscow-friendly Ukraine resolution from the US government of President Donald Trump . This was the first time that the most powerful UN body had made a joint decision on the war. In the Council, the text, which does not name Russia as an aggressor, received ten votes from the 15 Council members and thus the required majority.

In the dispute over the future course of action in Ukraine, the USA voted together with Russia and China, among others. In contrast, all five European countries in the Council, Great Britain , France , Slovenia , Denmark and Greece , abstained. The British and French theoretically have a right of veto, but have not used it since 1989. Resolutions in the UN Security Council are binding under international law.

The adopted paper entitled "The Road to Peace" does not name Moscow as the aggressor in the war, nor does it call for a Russian withdrawal; it simply calls for a rapid end to the war.

British UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward spoke out clearly against the resolution: "There can be no equation between Russia and Ukraine when this body discusses this war." Moscow is to blame for a war of aggression against a sovereign state that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives. France's Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière declared: "There will be no peace and security anywhere if aggression is rewarded."

The acting US ambassador, Dorothy Shea, said that the world was "on the brink of history" and that peace was needed as quickly as possible. She also wanted to reassure the Europeans: "We listen to our European colleagues when they say that they want a lasting peace, but not at any price," she said. They wanted to assure them that the USA also wanted a "lasting peace". The resolution was not a peace agreement and did not entail any costs.

Previously, a number of amendments from European states had failed due to vetoes from Russia, among others. An attempt by France and Great Britain to postpone the vote by a day in order to have more time for negotiations also failed.

The USA had previously tried to use an identical draft resolution in the UN General Assembly in New York to gain global approval for Trump's change of course in the Ukraine war. The United Nations' largest body prevented this pro-Kremlin move. Several amendments from EU states, Ukraine and Great Britain received the necessary majorities, so that the US text subsequently clearly named Russia as the aggressor and reinterpreted it in a Ukrainian sense at key points.

Washington abstained from voting on its own resolution, as did China, while Russia voted against it with seven states. 93 countries, including Germany and most Europeans, voted in favor - a significantly lower level of support for Kyiv than in similar resolutions before.

The second resolution, drafted by Ukraine itself together with the EU delegation, also saw many abstentions, which is seen as a distancing from the US-European dispute over the course of Ukraine. At the UN, this also revealed a diplomatic transatlantic divide, with Hungary in particular breaking away from the EU side and siding with Washington.

Before the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump's Ukraine initiative had led to diplomatic turbulence. Observers saw the move as a diplomatic rapprochement with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and increasing pressure on Kiev to enter into an agreement against its own will.

UN expert Richard Gowan from the Crisis Group think tank spoke of a successful European defense of Ukraine in New York, although the desire for peace among many countries in the so-called Global South had become clear. The US approach reflected this desire, but it also made many UN members nervous because it neglected international law - and thus protection for smaller states against attacks.