UN: US wants to isolate Russia with a resolution that Moscow will veto in the Security Council

United States prepared a resolution to condemn “in the strongest terms” the attack by Russia against Ukraine launched in the last few hours, and although it is very difficult for it to go ahead due to Russia’s right of veto in the Security Council, Washington wants its international “isolation” to be exposed.

A senior US official explained that his country is circulating the draft resolution not only among the members of the Council for a vote tomorrow, Friday, but also among allied countries – he cited the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia—all of this as “a first step” that will precede another similar action in the General Assembly, where Moscow does not have the right of veto.

The source did not specify the exact content of the resolution —beyond demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and supporting the sovereignty and integrity of that country—, but above all it aims to make each country underline the loneliness of Russia in its aggression against the neighboring country.

This action also seeks to send another message: that the United States and its allies “do not abandon their principles” and that the Council “does not stand idly by” in the face of the attack on a UN member. “Russia must be held accountable” for what it does, he stressed.

Russia, which is presiding over the Security Council this month, is one of the five permanent members with the right to veto resolutions, so it is assumed that it will veto any condemnation of its aggression.

Earlier in the morning, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, had asked “to suspend all non-vital UN meetings to concentrate on the priority of the day: stop the Russian attack on the world (because) pretending that the UN you can continue working as if nothing will be immoral.”

Shortly after, and seeing that the Council’s program continued in “business as usual” mode —one session on Iraq, another on Somalia—, the same ambassador asked the president of the General Assembly to convene an emergency session.

Precisely, that has been the line defended by the US Government: resorting to the assembly in the face of the foreseeable inaction of the Council.

The votes of the assembly do not have any binding power, but at least they will serve to make it clear that “they cannot veto our voices”, the American source said.

The support of Russia and the USA.

In recent days it has become clear what support the United States has: its traditional allies such as the EU, the United Kingdom or Australia have clearly raised their voices before the war, unequivocally condemning the Russian recognition of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

That recognition, which means undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a UN member state, also made other countries that were equidistant in the conflict until then, mainly African and Latin American, join the chorus of condemnations of Russia.

There were, however, important countries that still did not condemn Moscow, such as Brazil, India and China, the latter a traditional ally of Russia in all conflict scenarios and which always asks to recognize “the root causes” of the crisis in Ukraine, in addition to to take into account their security concerns, referring to their rejection of NATO’s enlargement towards Ukraine and Eastern Europe in general.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said today in a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that “China understands Russia’s legitimate security concerns” although he added that the Asian country “always respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the states”.

For the representative of the United States, the Russian attack put China in a difficult position because “what Russia is doing is a threat to everyone, and it is not in China’s interest for there to be a devastating conflict in Europe”, but he acknowledged that at the moment China is apparently endorsing Russia’s position.