UN security council approves US resolution calling for end to Ukraine war without mentioning Russia’s aggression
The UN security council has voted to adopt a US-drafted resolution to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine without mentioning Russia’s aggression.
The resolution received 10 votes in favour, while five members including the UK and France abstained from the vote.
As we reported earlier, the UN general assembly on Monday backed a resolution drafted by Ukraine and the EU condemning Russia and calling on it to remove its troops from Ukraine.
Key events
The UN security council vote on a US-led draft resolution calling for an end to the war in Ukraine came after France asked the 15-member council to postpone the vote.
The council rejected the proposal to postpone the vote with six votes in favour, three against and six abstentions.
During the council meeting in New York, the US ambassador Dorothy Shea said it was time to bring the UN and the UN security council back to its original purpose: the maintenance of international peace and security, including the peaceful settlement of disputes.
The US draft resolution “is elegant in its simplicity – a symbolic, simple first step toward peace,” she said, adding that “the three brief paragraphs echo the spirit of the UN Charter”.
UN security council approves US resolution calling for end to Ukraine war without mentioning Russia’s aggression
The UN security council has voted to adopt a US-drafted resolution to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine without mentioning Russia’s aggression.
The resolution received 10 votes in favour, while five members including the UK and France abstained from the vote.
As we reported earlier, the UN general assembly on Monday backed a resolution drafted by Ukraine and the EU condemning Russia and calling on it to remove its troops from Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, in an interview on Monday, spoke about Moscow’s readiness to collaborate with the US on rare earth metals production.
Russia is doing little to extract rare and rare earth metals and it should do more, Putin said, in quotes carried by state-owned Tass news agency.
Putin said that a potential agreement between the US and Ukraine on rare earth metals and other resources does not concern Moscow in any way. According to Tass, Putin said:
This does not concern us. I am not weighting up this issue in any way and do not even want to think about it.
Putin says Europeans can ‘participate’ in Ukraine peace talks
Vladimir Putin said Russia is not opposed to Europe’s involvement in talks to resolve the “crisis” in Ukraine.
In a televised interview reported by Agence-France-Presse, Putin said:
Not only European [countries] but other countries too have the right and can take part.
Donald Trump has changed the global conversation around Ukraine “for the better”, Downing Street has said, as the UK imposed further sanctions on Russia to force Vladimir Putin to make concessions.
As world leaders marked the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said the US president had opened the door to talks that could bring lasting peace.
However, continuing the UK’s careful response before Starmer’s visit to the White House this week, he did not comment on Trump’s false claims that Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a dictator, which have helped shatter the transatlantic consensus on the conflict.
On a day of frenetic diplomatic activity, Starmer, speaking via video link to world leaders gathered in Kyiv, said Trump had “changed the global conversation over the last few weeks” around Ukraine. He added:
It has created an opportunity. Now we must get the fundamentals right.
Pressed by reporters over whether Starmer had meant Trump’s explosive interventions had changed things for the better or worse, his spokesperson said:
Absolutely for the better. He’s brought about these talks that could bring lasting peace in Ukraine, which is what we all want to see.
Emmanuel Macron says Donald Trump was right to re-engage Russian leader Vladimir Putin but warned that any agreement over Ukraine had to include security guarantees.
“There is good reason for President Trump to re-engage with President Putin,” the French president told reporters.
I always think it’s good to have discussion with other leaders and especially when you disagree.
Donald Trump, taking questions from reporters, says he believes the talks between US and Russian officials in Riyadh last week were “fantastic”.
Trump says he has spoken to Russian leader Vladimir Putin and that “my people are dealing with him constantly”.
The US president says Russia “wants to end this war” and that it is to the “benefit” of Moscow to make a deal. He adds that he believes that Putin “wants to make a deal.”
“I may be wrong, but I believe he wants to make a deal,” Trump says.
Emmanuel Macron says France has spoken to the UK about deployments of peace forces on Ukrainian soil, and that “other countries” are ready to join in this effort.
“Solidarity and support from the US will be crucial to this,” Macron says.
Macron says he believes that France and the US have the “same wish: lasting, solid peace as soon as possible, and the renewal of an international situation where we are all able to shoulder our responsibilities.”
“I also wanted to be very clear, Mr President, about Europe’s commitment,” Macron says.
We have committed to building a lasting peace as Europeans. We have committed to being stakeholders and in these security guarantees, we are well aware that Europeans need to do more for security in Europe, for defense in Europe.
Macron says Europe is very “clear eyed” about what Europeans need to do “given the threats surrounding us and the responsibilities that we must shoulder.”
“Europeans are ready to do even more and to go even farther,” he says.
Macron says any peace agreement ‘must not mean a surrender of Ukraine’
Emmanuel Macron says he has spoken with some 30 European leaders and allies in recent days, and then lays out what he believes must be in any peace agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
“This peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine,” Macron says.
It must not mean a ceasefire without guarantees. This peace must allow for Ukrainian sovereignty and allow Ukraine to negotiate with other stakeholders regarding the issues that affects it.
Ukraine is also a country “in which we need to shoulder our responsibilities so that we ensure security and stability for Ukraine and for the entire region,” Macron says.
For us Europeans, this is an existential issue.
French president Emmanuel Macron begins his remarks by saying that he believes the US and France have made “very substantive steps forward” during his talks today with Donald Trump.
Macron notes that Ukraine has fought for the past three years not only for its independence and sovereignty, “but also for our collective security”.
Macron says the US and France have a “shared desire to build peace”, and that he and Trump spoke about their desire to bring an end to conflicts, to have a truce that is “measurable, verifiable, and that enables negotiation to a lasting peace.”
Trump says Europe must take ‘central role’ in assuring long term security in Ukraine
Donald Trump says he is pleased that French president Emmanuel Macron “agrees that the cost and burden of securing peace must be borne by the nations of Europe, not alone by the United States.”
“Europe must take that central role in assuring long term security of Ukraine,” Trump says.
Trump says the US has put up “far more” aid for Ukraine than any other nation, and that “at some point we should equalise”.
Note: The Kiel Institute for the World Economy’s Ukraine Support Tracker shows that Europe – counted as the sum of the EU and individual member states – has allocated €132.3bn (£109.6bn/$137.9bn) in help for Ukraine, ahead of €114.2bn from the US. It has also committed a further €115bn, according to the tracker.
The US president says that he believes that his country “deserves to recoup the colossal amounts of money that we’ve sent” to Ukraine.
“That is why we must have an agreement with Ukraine on critical minerals and rare earths,” he says.
Donald Trump says his meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron today was an “important step forward” to achieving a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
The US president says he believes that Macron agrees with him on “many of the most important issues”, including that this is a “very interesting and horrible situation that could evolve into a third world war.”
“We’re not going to let that happen. [It] should have never started, but it did, and what a mess, what a horrible, bloody mess,” Trump says.
Donald Trump says the US has had some “great” conversations, including with Russia, and that more progress has been made toward ending the war in Ukraine in the space of the last month than in the past three years.
Trump says US officials held “successful” talks with the Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia last week.
“Our focus is on achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible, and ultimately a permanent peace,” he says.
Trump and Macron hold joint press conference
Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron are holding a joint news conference following bilateral talks at the White House.
Trump says he was “delighted” to welcome Macron back to the White. “France is America’s oldest ally,” he says
The US president says the purpose of their meeting today was to end a “really horrible” war, “the deadliest and most destructive conflict that one can imagine.”
He repeats his claim that the war “would never have happened if I was president” at the time.
“It’s time to end this bloodletting and restore peace,” Trump says. “I think we’re going to do it.”
Anna Betts
New York City officials, foreign dignitaries and members of the city’s Ukrainian community gathered in New York on Monday to raise the Ukrainian flag above lower Manhattan, marking three years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Several dozen people, holding Ukrainian flags and dressed in blue and yellow, stood in the crowd at Bowling Green park on Monday morning, and observed a moment of silence in between remarks delivered by representatives and organizers to commemorate the anniversary.
New York City is home to the largest Ukrainian community in the United States, with around 150,000 Ukrainian New Yorkers.
Finnish president Alexander Stubb put forward a broad vision for a peace plan in Ukraine in several phases during his interview with Reuters on Monday.
The first phase would be a pre-negotiation strengthening of Ukraine’s hand and pressuring of Russia, he said.
The second would be a ceasefire with security guarantees for Ukraine supported by Europe and backstopped by the United States.
The third would be a peace process which discusses issues such as territory, finances and reconstruction.
Asked about Finland’s potential role in any peacekeeping operation in Ukraine, he said it was far too early to talk about boots on the ground, adding:
In any case, I’d much rather see drones in the air. So I think European support will essentially come more from the air and the sea than the land.
Finland’s president Alexander Stubb said the US will lose if Russia wins its war in Ukraine. In an interview with Reuters on the third anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, Stubb said:
The war in Ukraine is not only about Ukrainian independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity – it is about European security, and it is about American leadership.
Asked what his message to US president Donald Trump would be, Stubb replied:
If there’s an iota or an inkling of understanding that Putin wins this peace, then the United States will have lost, so I think we need to fight this to the bitter end.
Here’s more from French president Emmanuel Macron’s remarks ahead of bilateral talks with Donald Trump in the White House.
France’s objective is to build a solid, long-lasting peace in Ukraine, Macron told reporters, adding that Kyiv “must be involved” in talks to end the war.
Europe is willing to step up to be a stronger partner and to do more on defense, Macron said, but he noted that he hoped for “strong” US involvement in securing any peace settlement in Ukraine.
He added that some European countries would be ready to have peacekeepers in Ukraine as a security guarantee after a peace treaty was signed, although they would not be sent to the front line.
Andrew Roth
The UN general assembly has backed a resolution drafted by Ukraine and the EU condemning Russia on the third anniversary of its full-scale invasion, spurning a rival US resolution reflecting Donald Trump’s split with Europe and growing union with Vladimir Putin.
The US, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the EU-Ukrainian resolution underlining an extraordinary shift in US policy since the US president’s election that has largely absolved the Russian president of responsibility for the invasion.
In the vote, 93 countries supported the joint European resolution that named Russia an aggressor state and called on it to remove its troops from Ukraine, while 18 countries including the US and Russia voted against. The UN votes on Monday were mostly symbolic.
The US resolution was three paragraphs long and did not include any mention of Russia aggression, saying it “implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation”. The Russian ambassador to the UN has called the US resolution a “good move”.