Donald Trump has been condemned after the United States joined the world’s worst autocratic regimes Russia, North Korea and Belarus at the UN in refusing to blame Vladimir Putin for illegally invading Ukraine.
Washington, alongside the three dictatorships, rejected a UN General Assembly resolution calling on Russian forces to withdraw from the war-torn country.
The move by the new White House administration has been met with horror by leading figures on the international stage and political grandees.
Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine, who was in the UK government which stood up with the US to Saddam Hussain’s invasion of Kuwait, said Trump had sided with a “new axis”.
He said: “Those of us who admire America will find this axis of the US with China, Russia and North Korea in a UN vote inexplicable.
“We have relied on American support which enabled us to defeat the fascists in the 1940s and saw the rehabilitation of democracy in post war Atlantic alliance and it has now thrown an incentive not to peacekeepers but to those who threaten the stability of the modern world.”
The motion, which was drafted by Ukraine and other European countries, passed with 93 votes in favour on Monday. Eighteen countries voted against it and 64 countries, including China, abstained.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by China for supporting those who stand up for democracy, added: “It was a sad day for us all.
“The ‘leader of the free world’ siding with totalitarian states guilty of murder, slave Labour, war and genocide. The great presidents of the past will be turning in their graves.”
Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told The Independent: “Disgraceful but all part of Trump’s tactics to endear himself to Putin and increase the prospects of getting Putin to agree a deal.”
However, he added: “It is encouraging that Trump is now inviting Zelensky to the White House. All part of his shambles style and unpredictability. He might just pull it off. But only someone with Trump’s crazy temperament could/would use such chaotic methods. We live in interesting times!”
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The US urged other countries to vote against it and proposed a separate resolution which called for an end to the three-year-long war but did not single out Moscow for any responsibility in the conflict.
It was a three-paragraph resolution that called for a “swift end to the conflict and a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.”
