The U.N. Security Council on Friday failed to adopt a resolution calling for the cessation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after Russia vetoed the measure.
The resolution called on the nuclear power to cease hostilities against Ukraine and pull its forces from the country immediately. Russia invaded Ukraine early Thursday morning, local time.
As one of the five permanent members of the council, Russia maintains veto power along with the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and France. A new council president is chosen each month among permanent and nonpermanent members, and Russia just so happens to be the current president.
That dynamic created a surreal scene at an emergency meeting on Wednesday night in New York, as Russia’s invasion of its eastern neighbor was underway.
Speaking before the council, Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya defiantly called on his Russian counterpart presiding over the meeting to call Russian Vladimir Putin on the phone.
“At the exact time as we are gathered in the council seeking peace, Putin delivered a message of war in total disdain for the responsibility for this council,” he said speaking in English. “This is a grave emergency.”
Toward the end of the session, Kyslytsya told Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya that he and his fellow war criminals will “go straight to hell”:
Call Putin, call [Russian Foreign Minister] Sergey Lavrov to stop aggression. And I welcome the decision of some members of this council to meet as soon as possible to
consider the necessary decision that would condemn the aggression that you launched on my people. There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, ambassador.
The vote by the 15-member panel was 11 to one, with three abstentions: China, India, and the United Arab Emirates.