The Russian delegation vetoes a United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria (Photo Courtesy @InnerCityPress)

The vetoes effectively kills the UN Security Council measure that threatened sanctions against the country if it failed to cease the violent military quelling of civilian protest in the county.

An estimated 2,700 civilian protesters have been killed in such government-sanctioned violence, according to United Nations statistics cited by the Assocated Press.

'The United States is outraged that this council has utterly failed to address an urgent moral challenge and a growing threat to regional peace and security," said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, according to CNN.

But Russian and Chinese diplomats said that sanctions were "unacceptable."

"Under the current circumstances, sanction or threat of sanction does not help resolve the question of Syria," said China's UN ambassador Li Baodong, according to CNN. "Rather, it may further complicate the situation."

The United States and its Western European allies on the Security Council had watered down the resolution language in an attempt to avoid the vetoes, to no avail.

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