Devirupa Mitra 
New Delhi: India abstained on two competing resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly – one backed by Ukraine and the European Union, the other introduced by the United States but significantly altered through amendments from countries across the Atlantic – amid dramatic developments at the world body on Monday.
The split in the ‘West’ took place even as US president Donald Trump and French president Emmanuel Macron met in Washington to discuss the Ukraine war and publicly disagreed on the metrics of success for a ceasefire: “This peace must not be a surrender of Ukraine, it must not mean a ceasefire without guarantees,” said Macron – a reference to the US desire for Kyiv to accept the permanent loss of territory to Russia.
Three years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the cavernous chamber of the General Assembly in New York reflected a visible realignment following Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency, with the transatlantic diplomatic alliance at the United Nations visibly fractured.
In a striking scene, the United States, joined Russia, Belarus and North Korea, in voting against a EU and Ukraine-backed resolution (L.10) on the Ukraine war, which was adopted with 93 votes in favour, 18 against and 65 abstentions. An amendment brought by Russia was rejected.
A competing US-sponsored resolution (L.11) was so extensively amended by the Europeans in favour of Ukraine that the United States ultimately abstained on its own proposal, even as it was adopted by the assembly. The votes in favour of the amended resolution were 93, while only eight voted against and the number of abstentions rose to 73.
In line with its long-standing stance, India was expected to abstain – and did so – on the EU-drafted resolution, which explicitly criticised Russia, something New Delhi has never done publicly in the past three years.
The original US draft for L.11 avoided such language, fuelling the possibility that India might vote in favour. However, once amendments introduced criticism of the Russian invasion, India did not have to take any such decision and abstained in line with its stand on earlier Ukraine-related resolutions at the UN.
Justifying her government’s dramatic turnaround from its earlier stand of being a strident and vocal critic of Russia’s invasion, US deputy ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea stated that multiple resolutions in the past that condemned Russia and demanded withdrawal of Russian troops “have failed to stop the war”. “It has now dragged on for far too long, and at far too terrible a cost to the people in Ukraine, in Russia, and beyond,” she said.
The second round of unprecedented US-Europe shadow boxing over Ukraine unfolded on Monday afternoon at the UN Security Council – its apex political body – which took up a nearly identical US drafted-text that placed no fault on Russia. This time, it passed unchanged after attempts to amend it failed.
The UNSC resolution was adopted with 10 votes in favour, while European Council members – France, the UK, Greece, Slovenia, and Denmark – abstained. This marks the first time the Security Council has approved a resolution on the war in Ukraine, after Russia twice blocked earlier attempts with its veto.
Growing rift
The rift across the Atlantic began earlier this month when Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and agreed to initiate negotiations to end the war. This immediately triggered alarm in European capitals, where concerns grew that Washington might act unilaterally, spurring European leaders to push for their inclusion, along with Ukraine, in the talks.
After visits to Brussels and Munich by US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance, a growing sense of urgency in Europe led French President Emmanuel Macron to convene an emergency meeting. Apart from their concerns over being excluded from any settlement process, European leaders have blanched at US suggestions that Ukraine might have to relinquish its demand for the restitution of territory Russia annexed from it in 2014.
On February 18, the foreign ministers of US and Russia met in Riyadh, where they agreed to form negotiation teams to find a way to a peace deal. After Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticised the meeting and also reportedly rejected US demands to hand over rights to Ukrainian natural resources as ‘payment’ for the military aid Washington had provided it, Trump lashed out, calling him a “dictator without elections”.
Three days later, US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced that the US would present its own text for the Ukraine war anniversary resolution at the UN General Assembly, even as Ukraine and the EU were preparing a joint proposal.
As per reports, US had had wanted a Security Council vote on Monday morning ahead of the General Assembly session. However, the current UNSC president, China, scheduled it for the afternoon, just before a briefing on Ukraine.
The US-drafted resolution, finally adopted by the UNSC, was a brief three-sentence text that deplored the “tragic loss of life throughout the Russian Federation-Ukraine conflict” and called for a “lasting peace” between the two countries.
Split in UNGA
In the General Assembly, the initial text proposed by the US was successfully amended by France with three key changes. It replaced “the Russian Federation-Ukraine conflict” with “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation,” reaffirmed “Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, including its territorial waters,” and modified the call for a “lasting peace” by adding the words “just” and “comprehensive.” India abstained on all three amendments.
Along with the Security Council vote, the voting pattern in the UNGA showed the shifting geo-political realities.
Among the permanent members, the US and Russia aligned in voting against the EU-backed resolution on Russia at the UNGA, while China abstained, and the UK and France supported it.
With the exception of Hungary, all EU member states voted in favour of both resolutions. Similarly, among NATO countries, only the United States and Hungary broke from the bloc’s consensus.
Among the 134 countries in the G77, a coalition of developing nations at the UN, the vote was split, with ‘yes’ votes only slightly outpacing abstentions, largely due to support from Latin America. In Asia and Africa, the divide was even sharper, with support and abstentions nearly evenly matched.
South Asia reflected a similarly mixed stance – India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka abstained on both resolutions, while Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives consistently voted in favour, aligning with the EU. Bangladesh first abstained on the EU-backed resolution but later supported the amended US-drafted text.