U.S., Russia clash over Ukraine at U.N. 

UNITED NATIONS – The United States and Russia traded accusations, mainly over the conflict in Ukraine, at the United Nations Security Council on February 23. Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Security Council had become a tool to “rubber stamp” decisions made by Western countries. He accused the United States of “unsavory methods,” including what he called “the unconstitutional state coup in Ukraine a year ago.” Mr. Lavrov also cited Western interventions in Syria, Libya and Iraq as violations of the UN Charter. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power suggested Moscow’s call for greater respect for nations’ sovereignty and territorial integrity was hypocritical. “Russia today is training, arming, supporting and fighting alongside separatists who have brutally seized Ukrainian territory – a blatant violation of the U.N. Charter and an assault on its neighbor’s sovereignty,” she said. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Russia had “unleashed a hybrid war” on his country and added that Kyiv might request a U.N. peacekeeping mission to help maintain a truce in eastern Ukraine. “It is horrifying that these flagrant violations have been committed by a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council that bears a special responsibility for maintaining international peace and security,” Mr. Klimkin said. Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Linas Linkevicius accused Moscow of trying to redraw Europe’s borders by violence and force. “From eastern Ukraine to Moldova’s Transdniester, to Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, a pattern exists of Russia’s interference in the sovereign affairs of neighboring states,” he said. “For a year now, Ukraine has been under attack by Russian commandos and mercenaries.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by the Associated, Reuters and Deutsche Presse-Agentur)