Russia vetoes the resolution condemning its invasion of Ukraine in the UN Security Council

Russia has exercised this Friday its veto power to lock the resolution in the United Nations Security Council raised by the United States condemn the Russian attack on Ukraine and demand the immediate withdrawal of troops on Ukrainian soil.

According to the US network CNN, the vote has had 11 votes in favor, one against and three abstentions. China, which has refused to criticize the attack –calls, however, for a negotiated solution to the conflict– was one of the three abstentions.

“China advocates a concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. China believes that the security of one country cannot be at the expense of the security of other countries, and regional security cannot be ensured by strengthening or even expanding military blocs,” the Chinese delegation to the UN said in a statement. .

Thus, the Asian giant has stressed that, “under the circumstance of five consecutive rounds of expansion towards the east of NATO, the legitimate demands of Russia’s security must be taken seriously and properly addressed.”

“Russia can veto this resolution, but it cannot veto our voices. Russia cannot veto the truth. Russia cannot veto our principles. She cannot veto the Ukrainian people. You cannot veto the UN Charter. And Russia will not veto accountability,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said for her part.

The Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, has also reacted to Russia’s veto with a message on his official Twitter profile in which he has defended the measure, a project “co-sponsored by an unprecedented number of member states“.

“Russia is alone”

“Grateful to all members of the UN Security Council who voted to stop (Russia’s) treacherous attack on Ukraine and the United Nations. Russia’s veto is a bloodstain on its badge at the Security Council“, Zelenski has highlighted on his official Twitter profile.

The French ambassador to the UN, Nicolas de Rivière, stressed that “the result of today’s vote is clear” and pointed out that “Russia is alone” at a time when “Russian missiles are killing civilians, bombing cities, destroying essential infrastructure.”

“Ukraine is the victim of premeditated aggression by the Russian president. nothing can ever justify it. No member of the Security Council supports it,” according to its official profile, France’s permanent mission to the United Nations.

The same message has been given by Germany in the face of Russia’s veto in the UN Security Council, recalling that “one cannot veto the truth” and that “Russia’s war against Ukraine cannot be justified.”

The British Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, has also reacted, commenting on her official Twitter profile that “Russia is isolated in the UN Security Council since no country votes with them”, adding that “they are a global outcast“.

The United States and other powers circulated a petition on Friday condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a senior US official first confirmed, although Russia was expected to exercise its veto power to stop it.

According to the newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’, the resolution is an initiative that seeks “for the world to remember for a long time what the Security Council does.”

Russia currently occupies the ‘pro tempore’ presidency of the Council, which caused tensions on Thursday night between the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasili Nebenzia, and the Ukrainian representative Sergiy Kislitsia, who demanded a clear answer on the invasion minutes after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech, to which Nebenzia responded that “it was not a war”, but “a special operation“.

“It is too late, dear colleagues, to talk about de-escalation. Too late. The Russian president declared war. Should I play the president’s video of him? They declared a war. It is the responsibility of this body to stop the war,” he snapped at the Russian before the emergency Security Council that was held on Thursday night.