United Nations: 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 as India, along with 12 other UN Security Council members, abstained on a resolution by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
The draft resolution by Russia was cosponsored by Syria, North Korea and Belarus. It failed to get adopted in the Council on Wednesday as it did not get the required nine yes votes to pass.
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.
But France's ambassador, Nicolas De Riviere, called the resolution a maneuver from Moscow to justify its aggression against Ukraine. Albanian envoy Ferit Hoxha called it a mountain of hypocrisy, and Mexican Ambassador Juan Ramon De La Fuente said the Russian draft didn't respond to the reality on the ground or to the pressing needs of the civilian population.
Russia introduced its resolution on March 15. A day earlier, France and Mexico decided to move their proposed humanitarian resolution blaming the Russian invasion for the humanitarian crisis out of the Security Council, where it faced a Russian veto. The are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly.
Earlier Wednesday, Russia's Nebenzia, told the assembly that by considering the Ukraine-backed French-Mexican resolution, it was engaging in another political anti-Russian show, set this time in an allegedly humanitarian context.
Thomas-Greenfield sharply criticized Russia, saying, In one month, Russia caused the fastest-growing humanitarian catastrophes in
the world.