US refusing to co-sponsor UN motion condemning Russia on invasion anniversary, diplomats say

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Pro-Russian troops in uniforms without insignia in a truck in the separatist-controlled settlement of Rybinskoye in Donetsk Region, Ukraine, March 5, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

By Tom Balmforth, Emma Farge and Sabine Siebold

LONDON/GENEVA/BERLIN (Reuters) -     The U.S. is refusing to co-sponsor a draft U.N. resolution marking three years since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine that backs Kyiv's territorial integrity and condemns Russian aggression, three diplomatic sources told Reuters, in a potential stark shift by Ukraine's most powerful Western ally.

The step appears to mirror a widening rift between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump, who is trying to rapidly end the war in Ukraine and whose team has held talks with Russia without the involvement of Kyiv. 

The row is a major political crisis for Ukraine, which has used tens of billions of dollars of U.S. military aid agreed under the previous U.S. administration to weather Russia's invasion and also benefited from diplomatic support. 

The draft resolution for the U.N. General Assembly, seen by Reuters, condemns Russian aggression and reaffirms a commitment "to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders".

"In previous years, the United States has consistently co-sponsored such resolutions in support of a just peace in Ukraine," one of the sources, who like the others requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said on Thursday.  

The first diplomatic source told Reuters that the resolution was being sponsored by more than 50 countries, declining to identify them.

A spokesperson for the U.S. diplomatic mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Russia has seized some 20% of Ukraine and is slowly but steadily gaining territory in the east. Moscow said its "special military operation" responded to an existential threat posed by Kyiv's pursuit of NATO membership. Ukraine and the West call Russia's action an imperialist land grab.

The United States has been a co-sponsor of almost all U.N. resolutions in support of Ukraine against Russia throughout the biggest conflict on European soil since World War Two. 

It was not immediately clear when the deadline to back the draft resolution expires, and Washington could still change its mind. 

The U.N. vote, seen as an important bellwether of global support for Ukraine in the face of the Trump administration seeming shift towards Russia's position in the war, could still go ahead without U.S. backing, but might be less likely to win broad support in the General Assembly.

A second diplomatic source who also requested anonymity said: "For now, the situation is they (the U.S.) won't sign it." Efforts are ongoing to seek support from other countries instead, including the Global South, the source added. 

 (Reporting by Tom Balmforth in London, Emma Farge in Geneva and Sabine Siebold in Berlin; editing by Mark Heinrich)