The United States (US) and European nations on Thursday accused Russia of prohibiting any progress towards a solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine due to its aggressive tactics and the presence of its forces in the region.
The comments came during a virtual gathering of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) convened by Moscow on the sixth anniversary of the Minsk II accords, signed between the conflict parties (Russia and Ukraine) in 2015 to end the war in the Donbas region. The conflict near the Russian border between Ukrainian troops and separatist Russian-backed fighters in Luhansk and Donetsk has claimed over 14,000 lives since 2014, after Moscow’s unilateral annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
Despite multiple calls from individual nations as well as the United Nations (UN) for Russia to end its occupation, Moscow has consistently dismissed such allegations as politically motivated, maintaining that the Crimean people had shown their support to join Russia in 2014 through a referendum earlier that year. However, the US, the EU, and the UN consider the vote illegitimate and inconsistent with the Ukrainian constitution and international law.
Washington reiterated its position on the matter during the Thursday meeting, calling on Russia to “immediately cease its aggression in eastern Ukraine and end its occupation of Crimea.” Apart from urging Moscow to withdraw its troops from the region, the US also asked the country to “cease its support for its proxies and other armed groups and implement all of the commitments it made under the Minsk agreements.” It further said that Russia had instigated the conflict in Donbas and has blocked meaningful progress in diplomatic negotiations while arming, training, funding, and leading its proxy forces and supporting the self-proclaimed ‘authorities’ on the ground, adding that US sanctions would remain in place until Moscow reverses course.
A joint statement by European members of the Security Council echoed similar sentiments, saying that Russia was violating international law by using force against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. “We again call on the Russian Federation to immediately stop fueling the conflict by providing financial and military support to the armed formations it backs, and we remain deeply concerned about the presence of Russian military equipment and personnel in the non-government-controlled areas of Ukraine,” the text read.
Meanwhile, Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, rejected the West’s condemnation and instead accused Ukraine of not properly implementing the 2015 agreement. He further blamed the Ukrainian army for shelling residential areas in the region and said that the people there felt no connection with Ukraine. The ambassador also took aim at France and Germany – who had co-sponsored the Minsk accords between Moscow and Kyiv – saying that they had become “accomplices of the crimes” committed by Ukraine in the region. “Those who only back one side in the domestic Ukrainian conflict and play along with its sickly fantasies about ‘Russian aggression’ despite facts cannot call themselves mediators,” the Russian news agency, TASS, quoted Nebenzia as saying. Paris, responded to the comments, calling them “unfounded.”
UN’s political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo urged all sides to continue engaging in dialogue to ensure meaningful progress on a durable solution. She expressed concern over the recent uptick in security incidents along the line separating government-controlled territory and regions held by separatists, saying that the risk of backsliding would be very real if negotiations became deadlocked.
US, Europe Clash With Russia Over Conflict in Eastern Ukraine
They accused Russia of prohibiting any progress towards a solution to the conflict in the Donbas region, due to its aggressive tactics and the presence of its forces in the area.
February 13, 2021
Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia SOURCE: TASS via THE MOSCOW TIMES