“It was antagonistic.” The US Secretary of State on why the country voted against the UN resolution condemning Russian aggression

The UN General Assembly on February 24 supported a resolution initiated by Ukraine and European countries. Among the 18 countries that opposed it were the United States and Russia. The American Secretary of State explained that his country did not support the document because it was “antagonistic” and contradicted efforts to bring both sides to the negotiating table and end the war.

He stated this in an interview with Breitbart.

"As for the broader resolution, we believe that the UN should return to its statutory mission, which is to prevent and end war and conflict," Rubio said, emphasizing that the organization should not complicate the process of ending conflicts.

The US does not consider it favorable to have anything in the UN "that is antagonistic to any side".

He stated that the US had proposed its version of the document to the Security Council, which, according to Rubio, “is a very honest formulation and mostly says that war is a terrible thing”. In his opinion, it is good that they did this and that the Russian Federation did not veto it.

The US President Donald Trump also commented on his countryʼs decision to vote against the general resolution.

"I wouldnʼt like to explain it now, but it kind of goes without saying," Trump told reporters at a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron when asked why the US voted against.

What preceded

On February 24, the UN General Assembly supported a resolution initiated by Ukraine and European countries. 93 countries voted in favour of the draft resolution. The document calls Russia an aggressor country and demands that it withdraw its troops from Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. The United States, like Russia and Belarus, voted against it. In previous years, the Americans supported a joint resolution.

The US resolution proposal differed significantly from the version supported in Europe and included a Russian amendment. This document was also supported by the UN General Assembly.

The original text of the document proposed by the United States did not call Russia an aggressor, nor did it call on Moscow to withdraw its army from the occupied territories.

However, the General Assembly made amendments to the text of the American resolution: they replaced the words "conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine" with the words "full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation".

• According to sources in The Washington Post, after the US proposed its version of the resolution, the Trump administration pressured Kyiv to withdraw the draft resolution on Russian aggression. This “stunned” Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the country’s Foreign Ministry not to withdraw the current resolution.

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