UN Security Council to meet urgently on Ukraine crisis

MOSCOW — The U.N. Safety Council will maintain an emergency assembly Monday night time after Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the independence of separatist areas in japanese Ukraine and ordered Russian troops to “preserve the peace” there.

The assembly comes on the request of Ukraine, the US and 6 different nations. Russia, which presently holds the rotating council presidency, has scheduled it for 9 p.m. New York time. But undetermined is whether or not the assembly might be open or closed.

Ukrainian U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya says in a letter to his Russian counterpart that Kyiv is requesting the pressing assembly as a result of Putin’s actions violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the U.N. Constitution and a 2014 U.N. Basic Meeting decision.

It’s nearly sure the Safety Council is not going to take any motion or situation any assertion as a result of Russia has veto energy.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows under.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered forces Monday to “preserve peace” in separatist areas of japanese Ukraine, hours after the Kremlin acknowledged the world’s independence. The announcement raised fears that an invasion was imminent, if not already underway.

The Kremlin decree, spelled out in an order signed by Putin, left unclear when, and even whether or not, troops would enter Ukraine. However it introduced swift guarantees of recent sanctions from the U.S. and different Western nations and underscored the steep challenges they face in staving off a navy battle they’ve portrayed as near-inevitable.

The Kremlin’s announcement got here simply hours after Putin, in a rambling, fact-bending discourse on European historical past, acknowledged the independence of the japanese separatist areas, paving the way in which to supply them navy assist and antagonizing Western leaders who regard such a transfer as a breach of world order.

The U.S. and different nations scrambled to reply, calling for an emergency assembly of the U.N. Safety Council on Monday night time. The White Home issued an govt order to limit funding and commerce within the separatist areas, and extra measures — doubtless sanctions — have been to be introduced Tuesday. These sanctions are impartial of what Washington has ready within the occasion of a Russian invasion, based on a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the situation of anonymity.

The developments got here amid a spike in skirmishes within the japanese areas that Western powers imagine Russia may use as a pretext for an assault on the western-looking democracy that has defied Moscow’s makes an attempt to drag it again into its orbit.

Putin justified his choice in a far-reaching, pre-recorded speech blaming NATO for the present disaster and calling the U.S.-led alliance an existential menace to Russia. Sweeping by greater than a century of historical past, he painted at the moment’s Ukraine as a contemporary assemble that’s inextricably linked to Russia. He charged that Ukraine had inherited Russia’s historic lands and after the Soviet collapse was utilized by the West to comprise Russia.

“I take into account it essential to take a long-overdue choice: To instantly acknowledge the independence and sovereignty of Donetsk Folks’s Republic and Luhansk Folks’s Republic,” Putin stated.

Afterward he signed decrees recognizing the Donetsk and Luhansk areas’ independence, eight years after combating erupted between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces, and referred to as on lawmakers to approve measures paving the way in which for navy assist.

Till now, Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of supporting the separatists, however Moscow has denied that, saying that Russians who fought there have been volunteers.

At an earlier assembly of Putin’s Safety Council, a stream of prime officers argued for recognizing the areas’ independence. At one level, one slipped up and stated he favored together with them as a part of Russian territory — however Putin shortly corrected him.

Recognizing the separatist areas’ independence is prone to be standard in Russia, the place many share Putin’s worldview. Russian state media launched photographs of individuals in Donetsk launching fireworks, waving giant Russian flags and enjoying Russia’s nationwide anthem.

Ukrainians in Kyiv, in the meantime, bristled on the transfer.

“Why ought to Russia acknowledge (the rebel-held areas)? If neighbors come to you and say, ‘This room might be ours,’ would you care about their opinion or not? It’s your flat, and it will likely be at all times your flat,” stated Maria Levchyshchyna, a 48-year-old painter within the Ukrainian capital. “Allow them to acknowledge no matter they need. However in my opinion, it might probably additionally provoke a battle, as a result of regular individuals will struggle for his or her nation.”

With an estimated 150,000 Russian troops massed on three sides of Ukraine, the U.S. has warned that Moscow has already determined to invade. Nonetheless, Biden and Putin tentatively agreed to a gathering brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron in a last-ditch effort to keep away from battle.

If Russia strikes in, the assembly might be off, however the prospect of a face-to-face summit resuscitated hopes in diplomacy to stop a battle that would trigger large casualties and big financial injury throughout Europe, which is closely depending on Russian vitality.

Russia says it desires Western ensures that NATO gained’t permit Ukraine and different former Soviet nations to affix as members — and Putin stated Monday {that a} easy moratorium on Ukraine’s accession wouldn’t be sufficient. Moscow has additionally demanded the alliance halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll again its forces from Jap Europe — calls for flatly rejected by the West.

Macron’s workplace stated each leaders had “accepted the precept of such a summit,” to be adopted by a broader assembly that would come with different “related stakeholders to debate safety and strategic stability in Europe.”

U.S. nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan, in the meantime, stated the administration has at all times been prepared to speak to avert a battle — however was additionally ready to answer any assault.

Putin’s announcement shattered a 2015 peace deal signed in Minsk requiring Ukrainian authorities to supply broad self-rule to the insurgent areas, a serious diplomatic coup for Moscow.

That deal was resented by many in Ukraine who noticed it as a capitulation, a blow to the nation’s integrity and a betrayal of nationwide pursuits. Putin and different officers argued Monday that Ukrainian authorities have proven no urge for food for implementing it.

Over 14,000 individuals have been killed since battle erupted within the japanese industrial heartland of in 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Potential flashpoints multiplied. Sustained shelling continued Monday alongside the tense line of contact separating the opposing forces. Unusually, Russia stated it had fended off an “incursion” from Ukraine — which Ukrainian officers denied. And Russia determined to lengthen navy drills in Belarus, which may provide a staging floor for an assault on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Ukraine and the separatist rebels have traded blame for enormous cease-fire violations with tons of of explosions recorded every day.

Whereas separatists have charged that Ukrainian forces have been firing on residential areas, Related Press journalists reporting from a number of cities and villages in Ukrainian-held territory alongside the road of contact haven’t witnessed any notable escalation from the Ukrainian facet and have documented indicators of intensified shelling by the separatists that destroyed houses and ripped up roads.

Some residents of the primary rebel-held metropolis of Donetsk described sporadic shelling by Ukrainian forces, however they added that it wasn’t on the identical scale as earlier within the battle.

The separatist authorities stated Monday that at the least 4 civilians have been killed by Ukrainian shelling over the previous 24 hours, and a number of other others have been wounded. Ukraine’s navy stated two Ukrainian troopers have been killed over the weekend, and one other serviceman was wounded Monday.

Ukrainian navy spokesman Pavlo Kovalchyuk insisted that Ukrainian forces weren’t returning fireplace.

Within the village of Novognativka on the Ukraine government-controlled facet, 60-year-old Ekaterina Evseeva, stated the shelling was worse than on the peak of combating early within the battle.

“We’re on the sting of nervous breakdowns,” she stated, her voice trembling. “And there may be nowhere to run.”

In one other worrying signal, the Russian navy stated it killed 5 suspected “saboteurs” who crossed from Ukraine into Russia’s Rostov area and likewise destroyed two armored automobiles and took a Ukrainian serviceman prisoner. Ukrainian Border Guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko dismissed the declare as “disinformation.”

Amid the heightened invasion fears, the U.S. administration despatched a letter to the United Nations human rights chief claiming that Moscow has compiled a listing of Ukrainians to be killed or despatched to detention camps after the invasion. The letter, first reported by the New York Occasions, was obtained by the AP.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated the declare was a lie and no such record exists.

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Karmanau reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Cook dinner from Brussels. Lori Hinnant in Kyiv; Angela Charlton in Paris; Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani in Munich, Germany; Geir Moulson in Berlin; and Eric Tucker, Ellen Knickmeyer, Robert Burns, Matthew Lee and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

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Comply with AP’s protection of the Ukraine disaster at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine