Dozens of countries rallied behind Ukraine at a meeting at the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday, a day after the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution that took a neutral stance on the conflict.
Europe should move from freezing Russian assets to seizing them, said British Foreign Minister David Lammy on Tuesday, hardening Britain’s position on how the West should use bonds and other securities frozen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin on Tuesday welcomed what it described as a much more balanced US stance on Ukraine after the United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a US-drafted resolution that took a neutral position on the conflict.
Countries rally behind Ukraine after UN resolution
Dozens of countries rallied behind Ukraine at a meeting at the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday, a day after the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution that took a neutral stance on the conflict.
The event, held to commemorate “resistance to the Russian aggression”, followed the resolution adopted in New York on the war’s third anniversary that reflects President Donald Trump’s upending of US policy on Ukraine and his more conciliatory stance towards Russia.
“You are not alone. Norway and other countries, all the countries who are here, but also other countries, will continue to support you as you fight for your territorial integrity, your sovereignty and your human dignity,” Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik told a packed room of ministers and diplomats.
Thousands of Ukrainian citizens have died since Russia invaded in 2022 and more than six million are refugees abroad. Russia has said it had no choice but to launch what it calls its “special military operation” due to the Nato alliance’s eastward expansion.
Estonia’s Minna-Liina Lind, Undersecretary for Global Affairs, told the room she was “extremely worried” by the fact that the Security Council passed a resolution that did not include long-held language on Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
“But I think the European resolve is even greater. When there’s someone else not as strong, the others fill in,” she told Reuters after the meeting, co-organised by Ukraine and Liechtenstein on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council.
The US failed to convince the UN General Assembly to pass the same resolution that passed in the Security Council on Monday. The General Assembly instead adopted motions seen as more favourable for Ukraine, in a diplomatic victory over Washington.
Most countries attending the Geneva event were European and included France and Germany, but others such as Turkey, South Korea, Australia and Japan were also present. Washington sent a delegate who did not take the floor.
Ukraine’s ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko, who at one point became emotional while addressing the room, asked countries to continue their support for rebuilding Ukraine and seeking accountability for crimes committed since Russia’s invasion.
“The road ahead is very challenging but when we are united we can prevail,” she said.
It’s time to seize Russian assets, says UK foreign minister
Europe should move from freezing Russian assets to seizing them, said British foreign minister David Lammy on Tuesday, hardening Britain’s position on how the West should use bonds and other securities frozen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the US and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, blocking $300-$350 billion of sovereign Russian assets.
They are mostly European, US and British government bonds held in a European securities depository.
European leaders want to use those assets to help rebuild Ukraine, but have yet to reach an agreement on how to avoid legal challenges or setting a problematic international precedent, with several options under consideration.
“Europe has to act quickly, and I believe we should move from freezing assets to seizing assets,” Lammy told parliament when asked if he would support emergency legislation to seize and repurpose the assets to support Ukraine.
“It’s not an issue on which any government can act alone. We must act with European allies.”
Lammy did not elaborate on exactly how he wanted to deal with those assets.
In a January debate in parliament on what to do with the frozen assets, the foreign office minister for Europe, Stephen Doughty, only went as far as to say Britain was considering “all lawful measures that we can possibly take to ensure that Ukraine gets the support it needs”.
The European Union estimates that some €210-billion of the frozen money is held in the bloc, mainly in Euroclear, a Brussels-based securities depository.
Some Western officials, especially in the German government and the European Central Bank, have been reluctant to simply confiscate sovereign reserves, warning that such a move could face legal challenges and undermine the euro as a reserve currency.
Russia welcomes ‘more balanced’ US stance on Ukraine
The Kremlin on Tuesday welcomed what it described as a much more balanced US stance on Ukraine after the United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a US-drafted resolution that took a neutral position on the conflict.
“We see that the United States is taking a much more balanced position, which really helps the efforts aimed at resolving the conflict in Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“We certainly welcome this. We believe that such a balanced position speaks of a real desire to contribute to a settlement.”
At the UN General Assembly on Monday, the US unsuccessfully opposed a resolution demanding Russian withdrawal from Ukraine. But in the Security Council, it won approval of a resolution that called for peace, without assigning blame for the war.
The votes, on the third anniversary of the war, highlighted the dramatic shift in Washington’s position since President Donald Trump took office in January.
They exposed divisions that have emerged with US allies such as Britain and France, both of which abstained on the Security Council resolution that was backed by Russia and China.
Peskov said Europe had not yet adopted an even position, but its stance might change.
Kremlin reaffirms opposition to European peacekeepers in Ukraine
The Kremlin, asked about an assertion by Trump that Russia was open to European peacekeepers being deployed in Ukraine, referred reporters to an earlier statement that such a move would be unacceptable to Moscow.
Russia has repeatedly said it opposes having Nato troops on the ground in Ukraine, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying last week that Moscow would view that as a “direct threat” to Russia’s sovereignty, even if the troops operated there under a different flag.
Asked about Trump’s comment, Kremlin spokesperson Peskov refrained from publicly contradicting the US president, but effectively reaffirmed Russia’s opposition to the idea.
“There is a position on this matter that was expressed by the Russian Foreign Minister, Lavrov. I have nothing to add to this and nothing to comment on. I leave this without comment,” said Peskov.
Trump said on Monday that both he and Putin accepted the idea of European peacekeepers in Ukraine if a settlement was reached to end the war.
“Yeah, he will accept that,” said Trump. “I specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it.”
Trump, Macron display stark differences on Ukraine
Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron displayed stark differences on Monday in their approach to Ukraine, exposing a divide between the US and Europe over Trump’s bid for a quick ceasefire deal with Russia.
During a day of talks between the two leaders, Trump and Macron showed a friendly rapport based on years of good ties. But Macron made clear he disagreed with Trump on some key issues as they marked three years since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Trump refused to refer to Putin as a dictator, after calling Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator last week. Macron said it was clear that Russia “is the aggressor” in the conflict, a topic Trump wavered on last week.
“President Putin violated the peace,” said Macron at a joint press conference with Trump.
Trump expressed a desire for a ceasefire as soon as possible and said he was trying to arrange one between Ukraine and Russia. He said he could go to Moscow to meet Putin once a deal is reached.
Macron, on the other hand, urged a more deliberate approach, starting with a truce and then a peace deal that includes security guarantees.
“We want peace, he wants peace. We want peace swiftly, but we don’t want an agreement that is weak,” Macron told reporters.
Any peace deal, he said, must be “assessed, checked and verified”.
The two leaders did agree, however, on the deployment of European peacekeeping forces once a peace deal is eventually reached.
Hungary seeks removal of eight people from EU sanctions on Russia
Hungary wanted to remove eight individuals from the European Union’s Russia sanctions list and receive fresh guarantees on Ukraine gas transit talks before agreeing to renew the restrictions, said EU diplomats.
EU sanctions on Russia — imposed over Moscow’s war against Ukraine — must be renewed every six months by a unanimous vote and Budapest has often used these renewals as bargaining opportunities.
On Monday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on Facebook that Budapest would “not consent to rushing ahead” with the sanctions extension on individuals.
The Russia sanctions consist of two frameworks, which come up for renewal at different times. One covers economic measures and the other is a list of more than 2,400 individuals and entities that are subject to asset freezes and travel bans.
The diplomats declined to share the names of the individuals that Hungary wants to remove, due to the confidential nature of the discussions.
Russia says latest UK sanctions ‘illegitimate’
Russia’s embassy in London said Britain’s new package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine was “illegitimate” and many of those targeted had no connection to the conflict.
Britain on Monday announced what it said was its largest package of sanctions against Russia since the early days of the war in Ukraine, including companies worldwide that supply components used by the Russian military.
The Russian embassy called the measures “futile” in a statement posted on Facebook on Tuesday.
“The moment chosen by London to whip up the sanctions hysteria is quite symbolic — at a delicate time when the foundations of the future Ukraine settlement process are being shaped in line with the Russia-US agreements,” according to the statement.
Britain’s sanctions package, timed to mark the third anniversary of the Russian invasion, also targeted North Korea’s defence minister No Kwang-chol over the deployment of North Korean forces in Russia, and Kyrgyzstan-based Keremet Bank.
Russian air attack on Ukraine injures at least four people
A Russian attack wounded four people and damaged residential buildings across Ukraine overnight, said local officials on Tuesday.
Mykola Kalashnyk, governor of the region that surrounds the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, said one woman was injured in the attack which also damaged 12 private residences.
“She received wounds to her leg, she has been hospitalised,” said Kalashnyk in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Two more people were injured in the northeastern region of Sumy and one woman was hospitalised after the attack on the central region of Zhytmoyr.
All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts after the country’s air force warned of a Russian missile attack which also forced Nato-member neighbouring Poland to scramble aircraft to ensure air safety.
The Ukrainian military said it shot down six out of seven missiles and 133 out of 213 drones, while another 79 drones did not reach their targets. DM