Stef W. Kight
The U.S. vote against a United Nations resolution condemning Russian aggression is becoming another tension point between President Trump and Senate Republicans.
Why it matters: Republicans are bracing to have their party’s leader challenge or undercut their core assumption about foreign policy. Some still hold out hope for a war-ending deal.
“I think we should have voted ‘aye’,” Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) told Axios. “Clearly, Putin’s Russia is the aggressor. And the world has been aware of that for over a decade.”
It’s Wicker’s second rebuke of Trump this month, after he called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s comments on Ukraine’s territorial borders a “rookie mistake.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) called the vote “unfortunate,” while Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) chose the word “shameful.”
“Refusing to acknowledge Russia as the undeniable and unprovoked aggressor is more than an unseemly moral equivalency — it reflects a gross misunderstanding of the nature of negotiations and leverage,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a Monday statement.
What to watch: Other Republicans — including members of leadership — are choosing their words carefully or avoiding direct answers.
“I don’t know what’s all behind that. My assumption is it’s part of the negotiation right now,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told Axios, adding, “I’m pretty clear about who I think started the war,” referring to his past comments on Russia.
“I’ve been very clear on the aggressors from the beginning,” GOP Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said. He did not answer directly about the U.N. vote, but said he agrees with President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron about finding a way to end the war and “prevent additional Russian aggression.”
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/26/senate-republicans-trump-un-vote-ukraine-russia