The deployment of what Russia called a peacekeeping operation in the eastern region of Ukraine is “nonsense”, and Moscow’s recognition of the breakaway regions as independent is part of its pretext for war, the United States said to the UN Security Council on Monday.
As per the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the emergency meeting of the 15-member council, “the consequences of Russia’s actions will be dire across Ukraine, across Europe and across the globe as well.”
Tensions between Moscow & Western capitals are high after the weeks of United States accusations that Russia has deployed over 150,000 military personnel near Ukraine’s borders for an invasion. Russia has said no, it wanted to invade Ukraine & blamed the West of hysteria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday has officially recognised the two breakaway regions- the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic- as independent, defying Western warnings that such a step would be illegal and wreck peace negotiations.
At the same time, Thomas-Greenfield, while referring to the agreements of 2014 and 2015 that aimed to end the conflict between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, “President Putin has torn the Minsk Agreement to shreds. We have been transparent that we do not believe he will stop at that.”
On Monday, Putin ordered the deployment of Russian forces to the Donbass region in the eastern region of Ukraine to “keep the peace.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council, “We remain open to diplomacy for the diplomatic solution; however, allowing new bloodbath in the Donbass is something we do not intend to do.”
On Monday, Ukraine called for the Security Council to meet after Russia’s recognition of the two breakaway regions. Eight(8) council members, including the United States, Britain & France, backed Kyiv’s request.
It was the 3rd meeting of the Security Council on Ukraine in the past few weeks. The body has met many times to negotiate about the Ukraine dispute since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region back in 2014. It cannot initiate any action because Russia is a veto-power along with France, Britain, China and the United States.