HAMILTON, Canada

The US sharply criticized the UN on Monday for failing to play a "constructive role" in ending the war in Ukraine, with a senior American diplomat warning the world body risks being rendered irrelevant if it can’t help deliver peace.

"The key point is that the primary reason for creating the UN in the wake of World War Two was to stop future wars," US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau told the Security Council. "Yet the UN keeps getting bogged down on tangential issues and failing in that core mission."

Landau said the conflict in Ukraine is a stark illustration of that failure and noted that the war has lasted "more than four years longer than the United States itself was involved in World War Two."

Stressing that Washington remains engaged in active diplomacy, he said talks with the parties involved "have remained ongoing as recently as this past weekend."

He directly challenged other council members on the value of their contributions, asking whether their statements were "actually likely to advance a peaceful resolution of the conflict" or were simply "words that aren't geared to lead to any tangible results."

"It's unfortunate that the UN has failed to play the constructive role in seeking peace that President (Donald) Trump has been playing," he said.

Landau appealed to the UN to seize the moment so that "people looking back on this period won’t say that the UN rendered itself irrelevant and that peace was ultimately achieved despite the UN, not because of the UN."

"There is no greater honor than being a peacemaker," he added.