John Minchillo/AFP
Russia on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning its invasion of Ukraine while China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained.
The remaining eleven council members voted in favour, allowing the draft resolution to be adopted by the 193-member United Nations General Assembly.
“You can veto this resolution, but you can’t veto our votes,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield told her Russian counterpart and the council.
“You cannot veto the truth. You cannot veto our principles. You cannot veto the Ukrainian people. You cannot veto the UN Charter.”
The United States helped draft the non-binding draft resolution and sought a vote to register council members. The overwhelming rejection of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on its neighbor – a sovereign democracy – is yet another move by Western countries and their allies to further political isolation of Russia.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres later announced the appointment of Amin Awad from Sudan to the position of Assistant Secretary-General to serve as the United Nations Crisis Coordinator in Ukraine.
Awad previously served as the UN Regional Coordinator for Refugees in Syria and Iraq, and Director of the Middle East and North Africa Office at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.