Russia blocks Western-backed UN move on Ukraine
Russia has blocked a Western-backed UN Security Council statement that would have condemned the pro-Russian forces currently operating in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s UN mission refused to back the motion at the 15-member council on Saturday.
The press office of the Russian UN mission said on Sunday that "consensus has not been reached… because the delegation of the UK insisted on condemnation of some of the self-defense forces' statements."
The Russian mission also strongly criticized US-led Western countries for taking sides over the conflict in Ukraine, saying the Western members of the council have never condemned actions by Ukraine’s government.
Western diplomatic sources say Moscow has blocked the statement by refusing to include condemnation of recent public statements by a pro-Russian leader.
A revised version of the draft statement had specifically named Alexander Zakharchenko, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine.
Zakharchenko had announced the beginning of a major operation against the government-held cities.
On Friday, Zakharchenko said pro-Russians would continue to fight for more territory in eastern Ukraine and abandon the peace negotiations with the Ukrainian government.
In response, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko pledged to deliver a “full victory” over the pro-Russia forces.
This comes after a recent attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol killed dozens of civilians and left over one hundred injured.
Mariupol, which is home to around 500,000 people, sits on a highway that links areas under the control of pro-Russia forces in the east and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea that joined Russia in March 2014.
On September 5, 2014, the representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk inked a ceasefire deal in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The truce has been violated on an almost daily basis by both the Ukrainian military and pro-Russia forces operating in eastern Ukraine.
Donetsk and Lugansk, which are mainly Russian-speaking regions, have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations to silence pro-Russia protests there in mid-April 2014.
The United Nations says over 5,000 people have been killed during the ongoing conflict in war-torn eastern Ukraine.
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