Seventy-ninth Session,
60th Meeting (AM)
GA/12677
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, 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 reference to 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.”
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For information media. Not an official record.