The UN Security Council on Wednesday rejected a Russian-drafted resolution on humanitarian access in Ukraine, which western diplomats said they did not support because it failed to name Russia as the aggressor in the deepening conflict.
Only Russia and China voted for the resolution while the council’s remaining 13 members abstained, leaving Moscow once again largely isolated on the world stage over its month-long invasion of Ukraine.
Washington’s UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the US could not support a document that failed to call out the Kremlin for orchestrating an invasion that has forced millions to flee their homes.
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World and US-led military alliance leaders gather at Nato headquarters in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine. Reuters -
Smoke rises near a seaport in Berdyansk, Ukraine, whose navy reported it had sunk the Russian ship ‘Orsk’ in the Sea of Asov. AP Photo -
Refugees with children wait for a transport after fleeing the war from neighbouring Ukraine at a railway station in Przemysl, Poland. AP Photo -
A girl sleeps as refugees from Ukraine wait at the railway station in Przemysl, Poland. More than half of Ukraine's children have already been displaced, Unicef said. AFP -
A school destroyed in a Russian bomb in Kharkiv. AFP -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from the capital Kyiv. AP -
Activists hold placards during a protest in solidarity with Ukraine, at Grand Central Station in New York. AFP -
Ukrainian refugees take sandwiches at Krakow Airport before boarding a plane to Zurich, chartered by a Swiss millionaire. AFP -
A man collects clothes from a damaged house in the city of Zhytomyr, northern Ukraine. AFP -
A customer checks his rifle in a gun shop in Lviv, western Ukraine. AP -
A mother tends to her newborn baby in the shelter of a maternity ward in the city of Zhytomyr, northern Ukraine. AFP -
A serviceman carries the photo of Captain Andrei Paliy, a deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, during a farewell ceremony in Sevastopol, Crimea. AP -
A member of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces stands in front of a damaged house in the city of Zhytomyr, northern Ukraine. AFP -
A Ukrainian serviceman guards a military check point in the city of Zhytomyr, northern Ukraine. AFP -
Zinaida Bogdanova, a resident of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, reacts as she stays at a temporary accommodation centre for evacuees located in the building of a local sports school in Taganrog in the Rostov region, Russia. Reuters -
Children play in front of a building damaged in fighting during the Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters -
Graves of residents killed by shelling during the Ukraine-Russia conflict are seen in a yard, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters -
A Russian army soldier stands next to local residents who queue for humanitarian aid delivered during the Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters -
A Ukrainian serviceman stands on guard as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, right, speaks alongside his brother, former heavyweight boxing world champion, Wladimir Klitschko, in the Ukrainian capital. AP -
Family photos lie amid the rubble of the home of former teacher Natalia. The house, in Kyiv, was hit in a military strike. Reuters -
A service member of pro-Russian troops, wearing a uniform without insignia, handles a mortar round at the weapons depot near Marinka, Donetsk. Reuters -
Volodymyr, 80, rests inside his apartment, which was damaged by shelling, in Kyiv. AP -
This Maxar satellite image shows the remains of high-rise apartment buildings in Mariupol. AFP -
A man walks through a residential district of Kyiv that was damaged by shelling. Reuters -
A woman exercises near a car and apartments damaged by shelling, in Kyiv. AP -
Volunteers at a beach fill sandbags to defend their city, Odesa, in southern Ukraine. AP -
A firefighter takes a break from extinguishing flames inside a house in Kyiv that was damaged by shelling. AP -
Rescuers conduct search operations and dismantle debris in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AFP -
People queue at a pharmacy in Kharkiv. AP -
City workers cover the monument to Italian poet, writer and philosopher Dante Alighieri with sandbags to protect against Russian shelling in Kyiv. AFP -
Former teacher Natalia stands near the ruins of her house which was hit in a military strike in Kyiv, Ukraine. Reuters -
Locals clean the area at a residential district of Kyiv that was damaged by shelling, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters
“Russia does not care about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions or the millions of lives and dreams the war has shattered,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield said in the New York chamber before the vote.
“If they cared, they would stop fighting.”
To pass, a draft Security Council resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes from any of the body’s five permanent members — the US, Britain, France, China and Russia.
Russia proposed the text after France and Mexico withdrew their own push for a Security Council document on Ukraine's humanitarian situation.
Moscow postponed a planned vote on Friday, saying western nations had led a “pressure” campaign against it.
The UN General Assembly has meanwhile been debating its own draft resolutions, one pushed by Ukraine and its allies that is based on the French-Mexican proposal. The 193-nation body is expected to vote on the document on Thursday.
The text, which is non-binding but carries political weight, “demands an immediate cessation of the hostilities by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, in particular of any attacks against civilians and civilian objects".
Earlier this month, 141 assembly members voted for a draft resolution deploring Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling on Moscow to withdraw its forces. Russia and four others voted against the text while 35 other nations abstained.
South Africa has also advanced a rival draft text in the General Assembly on the same issue that does not mention Russia.
Russia has faced widespread international censure and stinging sanctions over the invasion, but has doubled down on a war it says is necessary to halt a further expansion of the Nato military alliance along its western border.
