The United Nations Security Council held an urgent meeting on Monday night (New York time) to discuss the situation in Ukraine. In it, most of the 15 members of the Council, led by the United States, have denounced the recognition by President Vladimir Putin, made public hours before, of the independence of the self-styled “people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk”, as well as the decision to deploy troops to the area. They have considered these measures as a violation of international law and the foundations of the United Nations. The meeting, requested by Ukraine, which is not part of the Council, was chaired by Russia, one of the five permanent members.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US representative to the UN, has defined Putin’s latest decisions as a “clear attack, without any provocation”. “They call them peacekeepers, and that is nonsense,” added Thomas-Greenfield, referring to the way in which the Kremlin has justified a military deployment. “We all know what they really are.”
At the end of the meeting, which lasted an hour and a half, Thomas-Greenfield announced to the journalists present that Washington, in coordination with its allies, will impose sanctions on Moscow on Tuesday for “attacking the sovereignty of Ukraine,” according to the Reuters agency.
Earlier, the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations for Political Affairs, Rosemary Di Carlo, spoke, stating that “the risk of a large-scale conflict is real and needs to be prevented at all costs.” The arguments of the US ambassador have been shared by several of the countries present, from Mexico (which has said it is committed “to the territorial integrity of Ukraine”) to India, and from France (which has defined what happened this Monday “as a violation of the Charter of the United Nations”) to the United Kingdom, whose ambassador, Barbara Woodward, has promised “severe economic consequences for Russia”. The United States and its allies consider Putin’s decision to constitute a breach of the Minsk agreements and a violation of Security Council Resolution 2202 (2015).
Vasily Nebenzya, Russian representative to the UN, has said, after listening to all the criticism and giving way to the speakers, including the Ukrainian ambassador, that his country “remains open to diplomacy”, but that it will not allow “a bloodbath in the Donbas [región que comprende Donetsk y Lugansk]”. “[Reconocer a los territorios separatistas] It is not something that we have suddenly decided,” he added, before asking Western countries to “think twice” and “not worsen the situation in Ukraine with their decisions.”
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
subscribe
“We are on our land. We are not afraid of anything or anyone. We do not owe anything to anyone and we will not give anything away to anyone, ”said Sergiy Kyslytsya, a Ukrainian representative, in a defiant speech. “There should be no doubt.”
In an exercise in diplomatic balancing act, Zhang Jun, Beijing’s envoy, has chosen to soften the tone of previous interventions. “All parties involved must exercise restraint and avoid any action that could fuel tensions,” he has said. “We call on those involved to continue the dialogue and seek reasonable solutions to address each other’s concerns, based on equality and mutual respect.”
In the afternoon, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, had advanced an executive order to prohibit “investment, trade and financing of American persons to, from or in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.” Those first measures, Thomas-Greenfield recalled, precede the “swift and severe” sanctions that Biden has been threatening for weeks if “Russia decides to enter Ukraine.” “[Putin] it is testing our international system, to see how far it can go.”
On Monday night, shortly before the UN meeting began, the US State Department had decided to withdraw its diplomats from Ukraine to Poland. Last week Washington had ordered the closure of its Embassy in Kiev to relocate it, in a reduced version, to Lviv, a city near the border with Poland, and, therefore, further from the east of the country, which borders Russia. “For security reasons, State Department staff currently in Lviv will spend the night in Poland,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in a statement sent to the press on Monday night. “Our staff will return regularly to continue their diplomatic work in Ukraine and provide emergency consular services. They will continue to support the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian Government, coordinating diplomatic efforts. The United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression is unwavering. The fact that we are taking precautions, as we routinely do around the world, does not in any way undermine our support for Ukraine or our commitment to Ukraine.”
Follow all the international information in Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.
#countries #condemn #Russian #decision #send #troops #eastern #Ukraine