UN Security Council Discusses Ukraine and Anti-Russian Sanctions

As discussed abroad, Kiev uses the situation in Avdeevka as a pretext to evade the Minsk agreements, stated Vitaly Churkin at the meeting of the UN Security Council chaired now by Ukraine. The meeting comes as a trial by fire for the new US Ambassador Nikki Haley, too. Though the Ambassador is new, her rhetoric is trite, similar to the one of her predecessor Samantha Power who is famous for her anti-Russian statements. Our staff reporter Valentin Bogdanov follows the discussion. Pyotr Poroshenko himself provided the Ukrainian Permanent Representative with the guidelines on how to preside the Security Council meeting. He even boasted of having thought everything through. One couldn't help but recognize the familiar style. The Ukrainian president once showed Russian passports and a fragment of the bus that had been under fire near Volnovakha. Elchenko had photos in his case. This is an apartment building in Avdeevka. At least one and a half thousand people lived there. The building was shelled by the terrorists. People found themselves in the street in freezing weather. It was minus 20 degrees. Naturally, the Ukrainian Permanent Representative didn't bring to the UN pictures of Ukrainian tanks standing in the courtyards in Avdeevka. Instead he brought a picture of an officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces killed in Donbass which he showed several times to Vitaly Churkin routinely accusing Russia of the escalation. But the dead Andrey Kyzyl and 16 thousand people left without heat and water supply are hostages of the international scheme, which was not elaborated in Moscow. Kiev is running out of money, and the interest towards Kiev is subsiding. Any aggravation of the situation in Donbass miraculously coincides with the foreign visits of the Ukrainian leadership. Apparently, by doing so Kiev hopes to preserve the crisis, which it had instigated, in the international agenda and at the same time to bind the newly elected leaders with its reckless policy. It was the first Security Council meeting for Nikki Haley in her new role. If anybody was waiting for Washington's rhetoric in the UN to suddenly change following the departure of Samantha Power, they had been mistaken. Of coarse, Haley complained that she had to start working with such a hot issue but she quickly returned to her predecessor's policies. The United States continues to condemn and urge Russia to immediately stop the occupation of Crimea Crimea is a part of Ukraine, and our sanctions associated with it will not be lifted until Russia returns the control over the peninsula to Ukraine. Tacking Russian Crimea on when talking about Donbass torn by war is the tool western Permanent Representatives to the UN have been constantly using for the last three years. At that time Haley was still the Governor of South Carolina and Vitaly Churkin decided to remind the new colleague how the history of her own country began. The US Constitution has the following historic words: 'We the People' The people of Crimea made themselves clear at the referendum. 90% of the population voted in favor of reunification with Russia which Crimea was detached from unfairly and illegally. However, Vitaly Churkin seeks to work with his new counterpart in a constructive way. After all, she herself, started her speech by announcing the new administration's desire to improve the relations with Russia. The Permanent Representatives are expected to hold their first private meeting on Friday. By aggravating the situation in Donbass, Kiev is not only testing the waters of the Minsk agreements (maybe, it's possible to withdraw from them?), but is also preparing Poroshenko's visit to the United States scheduled for February. The Ukrainian president is going to visit the UN, too. As a great expert, he wants to preside the Security Council meeting on conflicts in Europe.