US Votes Against Ukraine-Drafted UN Resolution Seeking Full Russian Withdrawal

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres speaks on 2025 priorities to the U.N. General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City on Jan. 15, 2025. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

The United States voted against a U.N. resolution on Feb. 24 that condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on the third anniversary of the war.

The three-page U.N. General Assembly resolution, as presented by Ukraine’s delegation at the international body, called for Russia to “completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”

In all, 93 countries voted in favor of the Ukrainian resolution, while 65 countries abstained. The United States and Russia were among the 18 countries that voted against the resolution.

Russian forces have continued to fight in Ukraine despite prior international calls for its unconditional withdrawal from the country. Moscow has yet to be dissuaded by international sanctions or by the hundreds of billions of dollars of aid that has flowed to Kyiv over the past three years.

The Trump administration has tried to bring both Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiating table. However, while the Ukrainian resolution would see Russian forces leave territory they have held since 2014, the Trump administration hasn’t made the full restoration of Ukraine’s pre-war borders a requisite component of its peace plan.

Earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the idea of Ukraine regaining all of its pre-2014 territory “is an unrealistic objective.”

Rather than backing Ukraine’s three-page resolution, the U.S. delegation at the United Nations presented a competing one-page resolution that calls for international support for a lasting peace in the conflict without prescribing a specific outcome, such as a full Russian troop withdrawal from Ukraine’s pre-2014 territory.

“Multiple resolutions of the General Assembly have demanded that Russia withdraw its forces from Ukraine. Those resolutions have failed to stop the war,” Dorothy Shea, the interim Chargé d’Affaires for the U.S. Mission to the U.N., said in a speech before the international body on Feb. 24.

Shea said the U.S.-drafted resolution supports the quick pursuit of lasting peace in the ongoing conflict.

“We urge all member states, including Ukraine and Russia, to join us in this effort. A simple historic statement from the General Assembly that looks forward, not backwards. A resolution focused on one simple idea, ending the war,” she said.

The U.N. adopted the U.S.-drafted resolution in a separate vote on Feb. 24, but not before adopting a pair of amendments sponsored by the European Union that adds language affirming support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity “within its internationally recognized borders.”

With the amendments, the U.S.-drafted resolution passed 93–8, with 73 abstentions. The United States was among the countries to abstain from the final vote on its amended resolution, while Russia was among the countries that voted against the final draft.

Neither the Ukrainian-drafted nor U.S.-drafted resolutions before the U.N. General Assembly are considered binding, but they provide a sense of the will of the international body. The U.N. Security Council may present binding resolutions that the international body has a greater ability to enforce.

The U.N. Security Council is set to meet on the afternoon of Feb. 24 for further discussions on the conflict in Ukraine. The council may adopt resolutions supported by at least nine members and not opposed by any of the five permanent council members: the United States, Russia, China, the UK, or France.

U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in recent days, with the U.S. president pressing his Ukrainian counterpart to hold new elections and calling him a dictator. Zelenskyy, for his part, has shown frustration at the Trump administration’s efforts to engage with Moscow in new diplomatic talks and has suggested that Trump is being swayed by Russian disinformation.