A Russian-drafted call for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine that does not mention Moscow’s role in the crisis failed at the UN Security Council on Wednesday, with only Russia and China voting yes and the remaining 13 members abstaining.
“If Russia cared about the humanitarian situation, it would stop bombing children and end their siege tactics. But they haven’t,” Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council after the vote.
Russia denies attacking civilians.
A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States to be adopted.
Moscow had scrapped a planned Security Council vote last Friday after accusing Western countries of an “unprecedented pressure” campaign against the measure.
The United States rejected Russia’s allegation.
Russia proposed the text after France and Mexico withdrew their own push for a Security Council resolution on Ukraine’s humanitarian situation because they said it would have been vetoed by Moscow.
That draft would have criticized Russia for its role in creating the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. Ukraine and its allies are instead planning to put a similar draft resolution to a vote this week in the 193-member General Assembly where no country wields a veto.
General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight.
“In one month Russia caused one of the fastest growing humanitarian catastrophes in the world,” US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the General Assembly earlier on Wednesday.
A diplomatic tit-for-tat has been escalating at the world body since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” on February 24 that is says aims to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday blasted Russia’s “absurd conflict.”
Ahead of a likely General Assembly vote on Thursday,Thomas-Greenfield said: “An abstention in the face of Russia’s atrocities is unacceptable.
Russia must be held accountable for the humanitarian crisis it is creating.”
South Africa has also put forward a rival draft text in the General Assembly on the same issue that does not mention Russia.
The Ukraine-led draft currently has 88 co-sponsors and South Africa’s draft has about six, including China, diplomats said.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused Ukraine and its allies on Wednesday of “another political anti-Russian show” in the General Assembly.
Nebenzia urged countries to vote for the South African draft resolution, saying it would “send a signal to Ukraine’s peaceful population that the United Nations is aware of their situation and wants to help.”
Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya appealed to the UN General Assembly: “We ask all those who stand against the conflict to vote with us.”
Ukraine and its allies are looking to improve on the 141 yes votes cast to adopt a March 2 General Assembly resolution that deplored Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine and demanded it withdraw.
Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria voted no, while 35 states – including China – abstained.
