(Trends Wide) — The US ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday that Russia “didn’t give us the answers that any of us would have expected them to provide,” following a tense United Nations Security Council meeting on Moscow’s escalation over from the border with Ukraine, which ended in a confrontation.
During the session, the United States accused Russia of planning to mass tens of thousands of troops along the border between Belarus and Ukraine. And, to that effect, after the meeting, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that the United States “called this meeting to allow the Russians to give us an explanation of what their actions are.”
“We don’t hear much” about it, he added.
The open meeting at the UN headquarters in New York was held on Monday despite opposition from China and Russia.
US officials have repeatedly urged Moscow to move down the diplomatic path. And they have warned that a new invasion of Ukraine would result in swift and significant sanctions. A message that President Joe Biden himself reiterated on Monday while the meeting was taking place.
In his remarks to the Security Council on Monday, Thomas-Greenfield said: “We continue to hope that Russia will choose the path of diplomacy over the path of conflict in Ukraine. But we cannot just ‘see and wait’. It is crucial that this council addresses the risk that their aggressive and destabilizing behavior poses around the world.”
The representative mentioned that Russia has accumulated more than 100,000 soldiers along its border with Ukraine. He also referenced US intelligence information that Russia has moved nearly 5,000 troops into Belarus and intends to mass “more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border…by early February.”
“If Russia continues to invade Ukraine, none of us will be able to say we didn’t see it coming. And the consequences will be horrible,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
What the United States asks of Russia
For his part, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, said his UN colleagues are “increasing tensions and rhetoric.” And he added that the United States and others wanted a conflict to occur.
“This deployment of Russian troops on our own territory is causing our Western and American colleagues to say that there is going to be a planned military action and even an act of aggression… The Russian military action against Ukraine that we are all assured will occur in a few few weeks, if not in a few days. However, there is no evidence to confirm that such a serious accusation is going to be carried out,” he said in translated remarks at the meeting.
“They are almost asking for this, they want it to happen. They are waiting for it to happen, as if they want their words to become reality. This is despite the fact that we have consistently rejected these accusations. This is despite the fact that no threat has come out of a planned invasion of Ukraine from the lips of any Russian politician or public figure during this entire period,” Nebenzia said.
Thomas-Greenfield responded that it was Moscow that was provoking, not the United States or its Security Council partners.
“We have made clear our commitment to the path of diplomacy. I hope that our Russian colleagues will also choose this path and engage peacefully with the international community, including Ukraine,” he said.
Monday’s UN Security Council meeting comes a day before an expected talk between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The first meeting since the United States sent its written responses to Moscow last week.
Public reactions to those written responses, in which administration officials said the United States expressed a willingness to work with Russia on things like arms control but refused to accommodate Russia’s “open door” policy NATO, have been largely pessimistic.
Blinken said last week that he “heard a variety of initial responses from different people in Russia to the document that we shared with them, as well as the document that NATO shared with them.”
“But the answer that counts is President Putin’s,” Blinken said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. to come. That’s the most important thing.”
Trends Wide’s Laura Ly and Michael Conte contributed to this report.
(Trends Wide) — The US ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday that Russia “didn’t give us the answers that any of us would have expected them to provide,” following a tense United Nations Security Council meeting on Moscow’s escalation over from the border with Ukraine, which ended in a confrontation.
During the session, the United States accused Russia of planning to mass tens of thousands of troops along the border between Belarus and Ukraine. And, to that effect, after the meeting, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that the United States “called this meeting to allow the Russians to give us an explanation of what their actions are.”
“We don’t hear much” about it, he added.
The open meeting at the UN headquarters in New York was held on Monday despite opposition from China and Russia.
US officials have repeatedly urged Moscow to move down the diplomatic path. And they have warned that a new invasion of Ukraine would result in swift and significant sanctions. A message that President Joe Biden himself reiterated on Monday while the meeting was taking place.
In his remarks to the Security Council on Monday, Thomas-Greenfield said: “We continue to hope that Russia will choose the path of diplomacy over the path of conflict in Ukraine. But we cannot just ‘see and wait’. It is crucial that this council addresses the risk that their aggressive and destabilizing behavior poses around the world.”
The representative mentioned that Russia has accumulated more than 100,000 soldiers along its border with Ukraine. He also referenced US intelligence information that Russia has moved nearly 5,000 troops into Belarus and intends to mass “more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border…by early February.”
“If Russia continues to invade Ukraine, none of us will be able to say we didn’t see it coming. And the consequences will be horrible,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
What the United States asks of Russia
For his part, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, said his UN colleagues are “increasing tensions and rhetoric.” And he added that the United States and others wanted a conflict to occur.
“This deployment of Russian troops on our own territory is causing our Western and American colleagues to say that there is going to be a planned military action and even an act of aggression… The Russian military action against Ukraine that we are all assured will occur in a few few weeks, if not in a few days. However, there is no evidence to confirm that such a serious accusation is going to be carried out,” he said in translated remarks at the meeting.
“They are almost asking for this, they want it to happen. They are waiting for it to happen, as if they want their words to become reality. This is despite the fact that we have consistently rejected these accusations. This is despite the fact that no threat has come out of a planned invasion of Ukraine from the lips of any Russian politician or public figure during this entire period,” Nebenzia said.
Thomas-Greenfield responded that it was Moscow that was provoking, not the United States or its Security Council partners.
“We have made clear our commitment to the path of diplomacy. I hope that our Russian colleagues will also choose this path and engage peacefully with the international community, including Ukraine,” he said.
Monday’s UN Security Council meeting comes a day before an expected talk between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The first meeting since the United States sent its written responses to Moscow last week.
Public reactions to those written responses, in which administration officials said the United States expressed a willingness to work with Russia on things like arms control but refused to accommodate Russia’s “open door” policy NATO, have been largely pessimistic.
Blinken said last week that he “heard a variety of initial responses from different people in Russia to the document that we shared with them, as well as the document that NATO shared with them.”
“But the answer that counts is President Putin’s,” Blinken said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. to come. That’s the most important thing.”
Trends Wide’s Laura Ly and Michael Conte contributed to this report.