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The United States joined Russia, North Korea and Belarus at the UN in refusing to blame Vladimir Putin for illegally invading Ukraine.
Washington, alongside the three dictatorships, rejected a UN General Assembly resolution calling on Russian forces to withdraw from the war-torn country.
The motion, which was drafted by Ukraine and other European countries, passed with 93 votes in favour on Monday. Eighteen countries voted against it and 64 countries, including China, abstained.
The US urged other countries to vote against it and proposed a separate resolution which called for an end to the three-year-long war but did not single out Moscow for any responsibility in the conflict.
It was a three-paragraph resolution that called for a “swift end to the conflict and a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.”
Washington was eventually forced to abstain on this resolution after European countries amended the draft to include language condemning Russia and reiterating support for Ukraine’s sovereignty.
It also passed with the amendments with 93 votes in favour, while 73 states abstained and eight voted against. The US abstained alongside China and Hungary. Russia voted against it.
The UN Security Council later approved the original US-sponsored resolution. The vote in the 15-member council was 10-0 with five countries abstaining.
Last week, US president Donald Trump blamed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war and called him a “dictator”.
“A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Mr Trump said on TruthSocial.
He later admitted Mr Putin had invaded Ukraine but said the US and Kyiv should not have allowed him to do it, repeating his claim the war never would have started if he was US president in 2022.
On Monday, Mr Trump again refused to call Mr Putin a dictator. Mr Trump said he did “not use those words lightly” when asked the question at the White House alongside French president Emmanuel Macron.
“We are going to see how it all works out. We will see what happens,” Mr Trump said.
