The United States' refusal to blame Russia for invading Ukraine during a series of United Nations votes showed the Trump administration's dramatic shift away from strong backing for longstanding U.S.-Europe alliances.
"This is a moment of truth, a historic moment," Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa told the 193-nation United Nations General Assembly on Monday.
Despite opposition from the U.S. and Russia, the assembly supported a Europe-backed Ukrainian resolution that condemned Russia’s invasion and demanding its troops withdraw.
The U.S. refusal to blame Russia for its war in Ukraine also played out in the Security Council, where the U.S. and Russia hold veto power. The council approved a U.S. resolution calling for peace in Ukraine without assigning blame.
Earlier this month, the transatlantic divide widened with U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to hold direct talks with Russia on ending its war against Ukraine and U.S. Vice President JD Vance's blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference attacking European democracies and values.
It's a reflection of Trump's seismic shift in foreign policy as he seeks a quick end to the three-year war through capitulation to Russia's expansionism, an approach he suggested the U.S. might take toward Canada, Greenland the Panama Canal.
The assembly vote was a loss for the Trump administration, which sided with authoritarian governments. But the abstentions by a third of all nations reflected a slippage of support for Ukraine, which previously had the backing of over 140 nations voting to condemn Russia’s aggression.
No 'surrender'
On the three-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, France led an effort to make clear in the assembly resolution that Russia was the aggressor.
At the same time, Trump hosted French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House, where Macron corrected several of Trump's false claims about Ukraine.
"This peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine," Macron told a news conference with Trump. "This is a responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia."
The U.S. delegation had better odds of success in the 15-nation council, where the post-1945 power structure gives veto power to U.N. members China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and United States.
The council approved in a 10-0 vote, with five abstentions, a U.S. resolution mourning the tragic loss of life in Ukraine without assigning blame. Denmark, France, Greece, Slovenia, and the U.K. abstained.
Under Trump's foreign policy, the council's usual adversarial lineup of Russia and China versus the U.S., France and the U.K. is altered.
"We hear our European colleagues when they say they want a durable peace – but not at any cost," U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Camille Shea, the interim chargé d’affaires representing the U.S. before the U.N., said in explaining the U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution.
"This resolution puts us on the path to peace," she said after it was adopted. "It is a first step, but a crucial one – one of which we should all be proud. Now we must use it to build a peaceful future for Ukraine, Russia, and the international community."
U.K. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said her nation opposed the U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution because only a just peace will endure.
"The terms of the peace must send a message that aggression does not pay. This is why there can be no equivalence between Russia and Ukraine in how this council refers to this war," she said. "If we are to find a path to sustainable peace, the council must be clear on the war’s origins. We also owe it to the people of Ukraine who have suffered so much."
