UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.
Security Council met late Sunday in emergency session as violence
escalated in eastern Ukraine, hours before a Monday morning deadline for
pro-Russia protesters to lay down their arms or face Ukrainian troops.
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Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Federation’s ambassador to the United Nations, speaks during a U.N. Security Council session. |
Russia called
the meeting shortly after Ukrainian special forces exchanged gunfire
Sunday with a pro-Russia militia in an eastern city, and at least one
security officer was killed and five others wounded. Ukraine's president
accused its powerful neighbor of fomenting unrest, and announced that
his government would deploy armed forces Monday to quash an increasingly
bold pro-Russian insurgency.
"At
this moment, Ukraine teeters on the brink," Assistant U.N.
Secretary-General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco told Security Council members.
Ethnic
Russians in Ukraine's east fear that the country's new pro-Western
government will oppress them, and are demanding to have referendums on
autonomy and possible annexation by Russia.
Fernandez-Taranco
said U.N. monitors in eastern Ukraine have described seeing
pro-separatist protesters as being armed with machine guns and sniper
rifles.
"The fact is that many
of the armed units that we've seen were outfitted in bulletproof vests,
camouflage uniforms with insignia removed," U.S. Ambassador Samantha
Power said. "These armed units ... raised Russian and separatist flags
over seized buildings and have called referendums and union with Russia.
We know who is behind this."
"This is not a war between Ukrainians, this was artificially created," said Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev. |
Russia has tens of thousands of
troops massed along Ukraine's eastern border, and there are fears that
Moscow might use the violence in the mainly Russian-speaking region as a
pretext for an invasion, in a repeat of events in Crimea weeks ago.
"This is not a war between Ukrainians, this was artificially created," said Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev.
Russian
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin denied Western and Ukrainian claims that
Moscow was behind the violence, and told U.N. diplomats that Ukraine has
been using radical neo-Nazi forces to destabilize its eastern region.
"It
is the West that will determine the opportunity to avoid civil war in
Ukraine. Some people, including in this chamber, do not want to see the
real reasons for what is happening in Ukraine and are constantly seeing
the hand of Moscow in what is going on," Churkin said. "Enough. That is
enough."
He said after the meeting that he hoped Western powers would pressure Ukraine to rethink its deadline for sending in troops.
"Whether
they are going to put an end to this provocation by Kiev, this is their
responsibility to prevent further escalation of this crisis," Churkin
said.
Source: Yahoo News
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