Russia-Ukraine: Zelenskyy ‘not afraid’ after Putin’s moves
Security Council to convene amid calls for sanctions as Ukraine’s president says international borders remain intact.
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An urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) took place on the deepening Ukraine crisis as the United States said the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin was an “unprovoked violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Western countries have repeatedly warned Moscow not to officially recognise the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.
Russia has been massing its forces around Ukraine’s borders for weeks, raising concern among the US and other Western governments that it might be planning to invade the country. Moscow has insisted it has no plans to do so.
The special representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe’s chairman-in-office in Ukraine says Putin’s decision to recognise Ukraine’s breakaway republics is a source of “deep regret”.
“This decision … can be seen contradicting the Minsk agreements in different ways, including the aim of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions being part of Ukraine with a special status,” Ambassador Mikko Kinnunen said in a statement, citing agreements aimed at ending the war in eastern Ukraine.
“As [with] all [other] OSCE participating States, Russia has [a] commitment to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of others, including Ukraine,” he added. “It is of crucial importance that today’s decision will not lead to new military action and bloodshed.”
Putin’s actions towards Ukraine show he has chosen confrontation with the West over dialogue, the United Kingdom’s health minister says.
“We’ve always preferred dialogue and still continue to do so but it’s clear from President Putin’s actions that he has chosen confrontation over dialogue,” Sajid Javid told the BBC.
He also warned the current situation was as grave as the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when a confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
“I do think it’s as serious a situation as that,” Javid said.
