By Emma Farge and Jennifer Rigby.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – The World Health Organization assembly passed a resolution on Thursday condemning Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. It also rejected a second resolution by Moscow which made no reference to Russia’s role in this crisis.

While the United States, along with 50 others, had initially proposed that Russia be punished for its actions, it did not suspend Russia’s voting rights at U.N. Health Agency, as many earlier requested.

While both resolutions express “grave concern over the continuing health emergency in Ukraine,” only one of the Western-led proposals states that the emergency was “triggered by Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine”.

Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Nations at Geneva called Russia’s counter proposal a “twisted alternative reality”. The Russian Federation failed its cynical attempts to fool this forum,” Filipenko said.

Alexander Alimov (Russia’s deputy ambassador) to the U.N. Geneva said that the Western proposal was “politicised, unbalanced and biased”, while his own proposal is “constructive”. He said that manipulating the WHO was unacceptable.

China supported Moscow during the votes. Yang Zhilun, China’s envoy to Ukraine, stated that the WHO wasn’t the right forum to discuss Ukraine’s health issues.

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The rare twin votes at WHO meetings are unlikely to make an immediate impact on conflict, but they can be seen as an increasingly rare multilateral endorsement supporting Kyiv’s position for more than three months after Russia invaded.

The Western-supported proposal was approved with 88 votes in favor and 12 against. However, the vote wasn’t unanimous and many abstentions were recorded among WHO members.

WHO Europe member countries have already passed a resolution, which may lead to Russia’s closure of its regional office.

The diplomats stated that they are wary about pushing Russia too far or prompting it quit. This is due to the WHO’s need for cooperation in disease surveillance. They said that support for Russian political condemnations has diminished, as some Western countries are seen to be too focused on Russia’s problems and not enough other matters.

These resolutions are accompanied by Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus’s WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom. This report highlights the “devastating”, health effects of Russia’s invasion. It includes 235 attacks upon healthcare, as well as larger mass casualties, and disruptions to the health service.

Moscow refers to its actions as “special military operations” in order to disarm Ukraine, and remove what it says is anti-Russian nationalalism that was fomented by Washington. The West and Ukraine claim that Russia started an unprovoked conflict of interest.