UN Security Council meets on Ukraine crisis
4 hours ago
.....U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said Russia "has manipulated. It has obfuscated. It has outright lied," reminding the council that the meeting was "the 24th session to try to rein in Russia's aggressive acts in the Ukraine."
"Every
single one has sent a straightforward, unified message: 'Russia, stop
this conflict. Russia is not listening,'" she said, adding that Russia's
force along the border is the largest it's been since it started
deploying there in late May.....
.....Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin offered a spirited defense, saying Kiev "is waging war against its own people."
Churkin did deny not the presence of Russian fighters.
"There
are Russian volunteers in eastern parts of Ukraine. No one is hiding
that," he said. But he questioned the presence of Western advisers and
asked where Ukrainian troops were getting weapons.
Churkin said he wanted to "send a message to Washington: Stop interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states."
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday accused Moscow of having "outright lied" about its role in Ukraine, as alarmed members of the Security Council demanded that Russia remove its fighters from a new front in the unfolding crisis in Ukrain
Council
members at the emergency meeting heard from a top U.N. official that the
spread of violence in southeastern Ukraine marked a dangerous
escalation, but that the international body had no way of independently
verifying the latest reports of Russia sending in troops and tanks.
The
latest meeting came hours after a top Ukrainian official Thursday said
two columns of Russian tanks and military vehicles fired missiles from
Russia at a Ukraine border post, then rolled into the country. That
opened a new front in the war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russia
separatists and the new Ukrainian government.
U.S.
Ambassador Samantha Power said Russia "has manipulated. It has
obfuscated. It has outright lied," reminding the council that the
meeting was "the 24th session to try to rein in Russia's aggressive acts
in the Ukraine."
"Every
single one has sent a straightforward, unified message: 'Russia, stop
this conflict. Russia is not listening,'" she said, adding that Russia's
force along the border is the largest it's been since it started
deploying there in late May.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin offered a spirited defense, saying Kiev "is waging war against its own people."
Churkin did deny not the presence of Russian fighters.
"There
are Russian volunteers in eastern parts of Ukraine. No one is hiding
that," he said. But he questioned the presence of Western advisers and
asked where Ukrainian troops were getting weapons.
Churkin said he wanted to "send a message to Washington: Stop interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states."
Moscow
has been virtually isolated in the two dozen previous Security Council
meetings on the Ukrainian crisis, but because of Russia's veto power as
one of the council's five permanent members, the body has been unable to
act.Statements from NATO, Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko, the separatists, the United States and the president of the Security Council left no doubt that Russia had crossed the border into Ukraine. The various statements cited internal reports, satellite imagery of armored vehicles and even photographs from Russian troops, including one by a soldier who showed himself operating military hardware.
As of Thursday, the
separatist arsenal included up to 100 tanks, 80 armored personnel
carriers; 500 anti-tank weapons, and more than 100 artillery pieces,
said British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, the council president this
month. Russia has directly supplied almost all of this equipment
throughout the conflict, Lyall Grant added.
"Now we see irrefutable evidence of regular Russian forces operating inside Ukraine," he said.The new southeastern front raised fears that the separatists are seeking to create a land link between Russia and Crimea, which Russia annexed in March.
U.N.
Undersecretary-General of Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman told council
members the latest developments mark a "dangerous escalation in the
conflict" but that the U.N. could not verify on its own the latest
reports of Russian troops inside Ukraine.
Ukraine's
deputy ambassador to the U.N., Oleksandr Pavlichenko, wondered aloud if
the world will ignore the apparent invasion or act.
"How many more red lines have to be crossed before this challenge can be addressed?" Pavlichenko asked the council.
As
the final council member spoke, the German mission to the U.N. tweeted,
"All but one #UNSC members condemn recent military escalation, call for
restraint. Just one member has very different narrative