The US did not support Ukraine’s UN statement condemning threats of Russian strikes on Kyiv

The United States declined to join Ukraine’s statement at the UN condemning Russia’s threats to carry out “systematic strikes” on Kyiv.

This was reported by AFP.

The document calls for a “full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire” and emphasizes the “urgent need for concrete humanitarian measures.” The statement was supported by nearly 50 countries, including European states, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about possible Russian attacks.

“Now more than ever, it is critically important to avoid escalation of a conflict that has already inflicted devastating harm on civilians and risks making the search for peace even more distant,” Guterres said.

On May 25, Russia’s Foreign Ministry threatened that Russian forces would begin striking defense enterprises, “decision-making centers,” and command posts in Kyiv in response to a strike on a dormitory in the annexed Luhansk region, which had “overflowed Russia’s cup of patience.” The ministry urged foreigners, including diplomats, to leave Kyiv “as soon as possible,” and called on city residents to “stay away from military and administrative infrastructure facilities of the Zelensky regime.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and informed him that Vladimir Putin had ordered the army to regularly shell Kyiv “in response to terrorist attacks” by Ukraine “against the civilian population and civilian infrastructure on Russian territory.” The State Duma clarified that strikes on the Office of the President of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada would not be carried out, since the Ukrainian president’s administration and deputies do not control the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are striking Russian territory.

The trigger for the escalation was a Ukrainian Armed Forces strike on a college academic building and dormitory in Starobilsk in the early hours of May 22. The attack killed 21 people and wounded 65. The Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that the target was the headquarters of the “Rubikon” unit, which controls drone forces. Putin called the incident a “terrorist act” and “a manifestation of neo-Nazism,” demanding that the Defense Ministry prepare a response. Russian forces subsequently struck the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region with an RS-26 Rubezh (“Orekhnik”) medium-range ballistic missile. Z-channels noted that the missile’s target was not “any strategic or even symbolic object.”