Europe caught off guard as US sides with Russia at UN
The UK's ambassador, Dame Barbara Woodward, and French UN Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere attempted to have the Security Council vote postponed, arguing that council members needed more time to consider the text and negotiate.Interestingly, the Chinese were willing to give more time for discussions, but the US and Russia, who are usually on opposite sides of issues on the council, both were against postponement.European members of the council then tried to introduce amendments, as they had successfully done earlier in the General Assembly resolution which led to the US abstaining on its own resolution.In the Security Council, the US threatened to block the proposed amendments to name Russia as the aggressor, reaffirm Ukraine's borders and call for a just peace. They said that it detracted from what Washington was trying to achieve and pursued a war of words rather than an end to the conflict.In the end, the US didn't have to use its veto because Russia voted to block the amended language.The US's neutral resolution then ultimately passed, breaking through three years of Security Council paralysis on the topic of Ukraine because of Russia's veto power.Just months ago, it would have seemed unthinkable that the first resolution adopted regarding the conflict would be one with such limited language - let alone that a resolution like this would be proposed by the US, condoned by Russia and passed without the full support of Europe's five council members.But the US hailed the development, the first action by the council to call for an end to the war. Others were not so celebratory.Richard Gowan, UN Director of the Crisis Group, said after three years of deepening animosity between Russia and the US at the UN, the sight of the two powers coordinating to embarrass Europe was pretty stunning.He said while everyone expected President Trump to be disruptive at the UN, this went beyond most people's expectations."The US lobbying against the European-Ukrainian resolution was very crude. US officials were reportedly threatening to cut aid to non-compliant states. This has left a nasty taste among many UN members," Mr Gowan said.
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