General Assembly Debates Russian Federation’s Security Council Veto of European Amendments Seeking ‘Just’ Peace in Ukraine
The General Assembly today addressed what many delegations decried as “misuse” of the Security Council veto by the Russian Federation on 24 February — the third anniversary of its aggression against Ukraine.
On that day at the Security Council, Moscow vetoed two of the three European proposals seeking to align the United States-authored draft resolution with the Charter of the United Nations. The two amendments — one inserting a reference to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and another adding a call for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in line with the UN Charter — garnered 9 and 11 votes in favour, respectively, but were not adopted due to the negative votes cast by the Russian Federation.
The other amendment seeking to insert a reference to Moscow’s “full-scale invasion” of Ukraine failed to obtain enough votes to pass. In the end, the text tabled by the United States was adopted as resolution 2774 (2025) by a vote of 10 in favour to none against, with 5 abstentions (Denmark, France, Greece, Slovenia, United Kingdom), without any amendments.
Opening today’s plenary, Philémon Yang (Cameroon), President of the General Assembly, expressed regret over another meeting pursuant to A/RES/76/262 following the casting of the veto by a permanent member of the Council — noting that the frequency of vetoes has continued to rise since 2022. Affirming that Council and Assembly efforts must be complementary, he noted that, while the Veto initiative demonstrates improvement in the United Nations’ capacity to address matters of international security, “we could do more”. Calling for the Assembly to reflect on how the outcomes of deliberations on the Veto initiative can be more binding.
He recalled that, at the eleventh Emergency Special Session on 24 February, the Assembly adopted two resolutions: “Advancing a Comprehensive, Just and Lasting Peace in Ukraine” and “The Path to Peace”, reaffirming its unwavering commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
In the ensuing debate, the Russian Federation’s representative recalled the Security Council meeting on 24 February and welcomed the adoption of the United States’ text “as a step in the right direction”. The change of approach in Washington, D.C., following President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration, caught “European pseudo-peacekeepers off guard”. Allies of the Kyiv regime have been consistently putting forward anti-Russian Federation draft resolutions with no bearing on reality. Member States should not just choose Charter principles that are more to their taste, he said, as it is not a “restaurant menu”. The Kyiv regimes’ non-compliance with the Charter caused the Ukraine conflict, he stated.
However, Ukraine’s delegate stressed that the Russian Federation’s behaviour in the Council following its aggression against her country “is the most vivid example of how detrimental the misuse of the veto could be”. The Russian Federation vetoed all draft resolutions that the Council attempted to adopt in response to its aggression against Ukraine since 2014. Amendments would have reaffirmed the commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, while the resolution lacks classification of the war as an act of aggression by one Member State against another. Use of the veto should be restricted when a permanent member is directly involved in the conflict under consideration and therefore cannot be expected to exercise its voting rights and privileges in an impartial manner. “Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians, but peace must be real, not just a word,” she stressed.
Throughout the debate, the Assembly heard a chorus of European voices condemning Russian Federation’s actions in the Council. “Let it be clear, Russia is abusing its veto power to block references to the principle of territorial integrity,” said a representative of the European Union, in its capacity as observer, also citing a second veto obstructing a call for a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in line with the UN Charter. The Russian Federation has bombed Ukraine cities daily as part of its unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression. “Russia is undermining the core principles of our multilateral system,” she stated, adding: “We cannot accept an equivalence between the aggressor and the victim of aggression.”
Liechtenstein’s delegate, also speaking for a group of countries, said the vetoes under discussion “set a concerning precedent for the security of every Member State”. The text adopted clearly failed to meet standards set out by the membership, which “is remarkable and worrisome”, he stated. He noted that the resolution clearly infers that the Russian Federation is a party to a dispute germane to the resolution — while Article 27 the Charter of the United Nations states “the party to a dispute shall abstain from voting”, which should have applied to the Russian Federation.
Echoing that, the representative of Luxembourg, also speaking for Belgium and the Netherlands, said that the world witnessed “a situation where the perpetrator acts as the judge in his own case”. He affirmed that the Assembly has been the moral compass of the UN. Steadfastly defending the principles of international law, whether in the Middle East, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Myanmar or Ukraine, he noted that resolution 2774 (2025) makes no reference to the party responsible for the invasion.
“What makes Russia’s vetoes even more egregious is the fact that the very same amendments were adopted by a clear majority of the UN membership in the General Assembly the same day,” said Poland’s delegate. The Russian Federation not only undermined the Council, but effectively silenced the voice of the international community, he added.
The representative of Estonia, also speaking for Latvia and Lithuania, recalled that the proposed amendments had been respectively supported by 9 and 11 members of the Council, yet the Russian Federation voted against them — ignoring “the expression of the political will of the most democratic body of the UN” — the Assembly.
Affirming Ukraine’s right to self-defence, the representative of the United Kingdom, said her Government remains ready to develop a coalition of the willing to defend a strong, just peace deal to deter further Russian Federation aggression against its neighbours. She recalled that the amendments sought to acknowledge the Russian Federation as the perpetrator of the invasion. The subsequent veto “flouted the voice” of the Assembly, she stressed, adding: “If Putin wanted peace, he could have it tomorrow” by ceasing its aggression and withdrawing its forces from all of Ukraine.
France’s delegate called for Member States “to work towards a peace that is just, lasting and based on the principles of the Charter”. There can be no lasting peace without respect for the principles that are the very foundation of “our collective security” — including the sovereign equality of States and respect for territorial integrity. “To forget these principles is to accept a world where the law of the jungle prevails, where might prevails over right,” he added.
However, the representative of the United States said that resolution 2774 (2025) “has put us on a path to peace”, affirming that the action in the Council on 24 February demonstrated that her Government “is committed to ending the Russia-Ukraine war”. “The longer the war continues, the greater the suffering for both nations,” she added, calling for a peace that is durable and lasting, not a temporary pause. The Council showed that the UN can still live up to the purposes and principles of its Charter. All Member States can agree that “the war is a tragedy and that it must end”, she said.
South Africa’s representative added that the warring parties should begin to identify areas of common interest in a spirit of compromise and flexibility, rather than continue to firmly hold on to their divergent views.
Welcoming the “possibility of a momentum towards peace”, Brazil’s delegate said that, although the resolution represents the first time the Council has reached a decision in this file, it is far from bringing the conflict close to “any possible peaceful solution”. Since September 2024, Brazil has been working with the Group of Friends of Peace to voice the views of the Global South, he said. Observing that too many opportunities for peace have already been missed, he stressed: “Let us not lose another one.”
Taking a broader global view, Egypt’s delegate said: “This crisis does not only affect the parties to the conflict or the regional neighbours, but also casts a negative shadow on the Global South, mainly African States.” Noting that his country was directly affected, while shouldering refugees from neighbouring countries going through unrest, he called for “reason and wisdom first”. Egypt is a founding member of the Friends for Peace group, established in 2024, he observed, adding that it is a high time to “shield the developed and developing world from the grave repercussion of the crisis this size”.
Turning to diplomacy, Türkiye’s delegate recalled that his delegation discussed contributions it could make, as well as its desire to host the negotiations, when Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Ankara, and discussed possible contributions to a diplomatic end to war with Russian Federation’s Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov in Türkiye on 24 February — marking it as one of the few countries to maintain dialogue with both parties. Further, Türkiye pioneered the Black Sea Grain Initiative, various prisoner exchanges and voted in favour of both General Assembly resolutions. “At this critical juncture, we must focus on crafting a genuine solution rather than going after competing texts,” he stated.
In other business, the Assembly adopted draft resolution A/79/L.58, titled “Scope, modalities, format and organization of the fourth high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases and the promotion of mental health and well-being”, without a vote. By its terms, the Assembly decided that a one-day high-level meeting will be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 25 September under the overall theme “Equity and integration: transforming lives and livelihoods through leadership and action on non-communicable diseases and the promotion of mental health and well-being”.
Prior to that, the Assembly rejected draft amendment A/79/L.60 — concerning the participation of non-governmental organizations — proposed by the Russian Federation, by a recorded vote of 71 against to 29 in favour, with 43 abstentions.