[…] Adopting resolution 2774 (2025) (to be issued as document S/RES/2774(2025)) by a vote of 10 in favour to none against, with 5 abstentions (Denmark, France, Greece, Slovenia, United Kingdom), the Council implored a swift end to the conflict and urged a lasting peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
Before the vote, the representative of the United States said that the Council stands on “the precipice of history with a solemn task — creating conditions to end the bloodiest war on the European continent” since the organ was created in June 1945. Noting that her country’s draft text is “a symbolic, simple first step towards peace”, she added that it “is not a peace deal”. Rather, it represents a path to peace, and she urged all Council members to join the United States in vanquishing the scourge of this war.
However, the representative of the United Kingdom underscored: “There can be no equivalence between Russia and Ukraine in how this Council refers to this war.” Moscow chose to launch a war of aggression, and “the Council must be clear on this”, she stressed. “We must also be clear that peace must respect the UN Charter and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders,” she added, proposing several amendments to the text on behalf of the Council members who ultimately abstained from the vote on the text as a whole.
France’s delegate noted such proposed amendments demonstrate “our resolute commitment — after three years of war — to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine”. However, he underscored that peace cannot be a synonym for capitulation of the aggressed State. The amendments, he said, also aim to recall that there is an aggressor and an aggressed State, with the Russian Federation having attacked a sovereign State that posed no threat to it.
The representative of the Russian Federation, for his part, said of today’s text: “We consider it, overall, as a common-sense initiative.” It reflects, he said, the desire of the new United States Administration to “really contribute”. He also proposed several amendments, including inserting language regarding the need to “eradicate the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis”. On the amendments proposed by the European Council members, he said they “replace the essence of the American text and make it into another anti-Russia ultimatum”.
None of the five proposed amendments were adopted, either because they failed to obtain the required number of votes or because the Russian Federation cast its veto.
Following the adoption of the unamended text, the representative of the United States welcomed Council members’ support of the resolution, welcoming the first Council action taken in three years on Ukraine to firmly call for an end to the conflict. “This resolution puts us on the path to peace,” she affirmed, and although it is a first step, it is a crucial one. The Council must now use it to build a peaceful future for Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the international community. […]
Meanwhile, the representative of the Russian Federation welcomed changes in the United States’ position on the Ukrainian conflict. “It is clear that the militarizing Europe today is the only player internationally which wants the war to continue,” he stated. And while today’s text is not ideal, it is a first attempt to have a constructive and future-oriented product by the Council. The key outline of a restored European and international security “can already be seen in the American text and this gives us a certain optimism”, he stated.
At the outset of the meeting, the representative of France proposed that today’s vote be postponed, expressing concern that the text was introduced “without real negotiations among Council members”. While the representative of the United Kingdom expressed strong support for that proposal, the representative of the United States opposed it. Ultimately, that proposal was rejected for failing to obtain a sufficient number of votes. Läs referatet