Russia has criticised UN chief Ban Ki-moon's decision to fire a Kenyan peacekeeping commander in
South
Sudan
as premature.
The country said on Thursday that the mission there was now "in ruins" after Kenya vowed to withdraw all its troops in response to the move.
Ban dismissed Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki after a UN inquiry, into the response by peacekeepers to several days of violence in the capital Juba in July, found a lack of leadership and that UN troops failed to protect civilians.
Kenya said it would withdraw some 1,000 troops deployed with the 13,000-strong peacekeeping mission in
South
Sudan, where UN peacekeepers have been deployed since 2011 when it gained independence from
Sudan.
In an unusual move, Russia, a UN Security Council veto power, and Kenya publicly criticised Ban's response to the report.
"For us the decision was premature," Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Petr Illichev said.
"We don't have a special representative, she's leaving, we don't have a force commander. ... The whole structure is in ruins."
Ondieki became the force commander in June, just three weeks before the outbreak of heavy fighting between
South
Sudan
President Salva Kiir's troops and soldiers loyal to his rival, Riek Machar.
UN
South
Sudan
envoy Ellen Loj is due to step down at the end of November.
The UN inquiry, released on Tuesday, found peacekeepers did not operate under a unified command and received multiple and sometimes conflicting orders. It said there was a "chaotic and ineffective" UN response.
Kenya UN Ambassador Macharia Kamau said his country had appealed to Ban not to single out any one individual for "what we will continually insist is a systemic failure in the United Nations system."
"The secretary-general, in his lame-duck season, seems to have found the courage that has alluded him throughout his tenure by choosing to ignore Kenya's plea," Kamau told a news conference at the United Nations.
Ban steps down at the end of 2016 after serving two five-year terms.
The United States proposed on Thursday that the Security Council welcome the inquiry's report, but diplomats said that China, backed by Russia, blocked the move. Such statements have to be agreed by consensus.
The UN inquiry had found that on two occasions Chinese peacekeepers abandoned their positions during the violence.
In Beijing on Friday, China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the report contained "groundless criticism" of relevant UN peacekeepers in
South
Sudan
and expressed "regret" over its negative impact on the UN peacekeeping mission.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric defended the UN inquiry on Thursday, which he said was focused on UN decisions made during the several days of violence. Dozens of civilians and two Chinese peacekeepers were killed during the fighting.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, acknowledged the difficult and dangerous circumstances faced by peacekeepers in
South
Sudan, but said the failure to act by UN troops "revealed systemic shortcomings in UNMISS."
"It is clear from the UN's investigation that when civilians were in desperate need of help, their pleas were ignored, and the human costs were horrific," Power said in a statement.
Political rivalry in
South
Sudan
between Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines.
The pair signed a shaky peace deal a year ago, but fighting has continued. Machar fled
South
Sudan
following the fighting in July.
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