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The United States and Russia engaged in a public diplomatic brawl Monday at the U.N. Security Council over the Ukraine crisis, with the Americans accusing the Russians of endangering peace by massing troops on Ukraine’s borders and Kremlin diplomats dismissing what they called farcical theatrics and fear-mongering.
Almost immediately after the meeting of the 15-nation council convened, the Russians objected to even holding it. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia of Russia accused the Americans of fomenting “unfounded accusations that we have refuted” and said the meeting would not help “bring this council together.”
He said no Russian troops were in Ukraine, questioning the basic premise of a meeting he described as “megaphone diplomacy.”
The American ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, countered that many private diplomatic meetings had been held about Russia’s military buildup and it was “now time to have a meeting in public.” She asked other members how they would feel “if you had 100,000 troops sitting on your border.”
The council voted to proceed with the meeting, with only Russia and China objecting.
“The situation we are facing in Europe is urgent and dangerous,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said in her opening remarks. “Russia’s actions strike at the very heart of the U.N. charter.”
The Russian military buildup, she said, reflected “an escalation in a pattern of aggression that we’ve seen from Russia again and again,” and that if the Russians invaded Ukraine, “none of us will be able to say we didn’t see it coming.”
The meeting of the council, requested by the United States last week, represents the highest-profile arena for the two powers to sway world opinion over Ukraine. The tensions surrounding the former Soviet republic have brought U.S.-Russian relations to their lowest point since the Cold War.
Other military or air installations
Russia has begun moving
troops, armor and advanced
antiaircraft systems into
Belarus, a close ally.
Around 130,000 Russian troops
have been deployed near the
Ukrainian border.
Forces deployed north of
Ukraine could stretch
the country’s forces thin and
threaten its capital, Kyiv.
Approximate line
separating Ukrainian and
Russian-backed forces.
Nearly 20,000 troops are near
two breakaway provinces, where
Ukraine has been locked in a
grinding war with Russian-backed
separatists since 2014.
Other military or air installations
Around 130,000 Russian troops
have been deployed near the
Ukrainian border.
Russia has begun moving
troops, armor and advanced
antiaircraft systems into
Belarus, a close ally.
Approximate line
separating Ukrainian and
Russian-backed forces.
Nearly 20,000 troops are near two
breakaway provinces, where Ukraine
has been locked in a grinding
war with Russian-backed
separatists since 2014.
Around 130,000 Russian troops
have been deployed near the
Ukrainian border.
Russia has begun moving
troops, armor and advanced
antiaircraft systems into
Belarus, a close ally.
Approximate line
separating Ukrainian and
Russian-backed forces.
Nearly 20,000 troops are near two
breakaway provinces, where Ukraine
has been locked in a grinding
war with Russian-backed
separatists since 2014.
Around 130,000 Russian troops
have been deployed near the
Ukrainian border.
Russia has begun moving
troops, armor and advanced
antiaircraft systems into
Belarus, a close ally.
Nearly 20,000 troops are near
two breakaway provinces, where
Ukraine has been locked in a
grinding war with Russian-backed
separatists since 2014.
Note: Numbers for newly arrived troops to Belarus, parts of Crimea, and western Russia are rough estimates.
As one of the five permanent members of the council — along with Britain, China, France and the United States — Russia has the power to veto any decision by the majority. But veto power cannot be used to block a meeting.
Russian diplomats have ridiculed the meeting as part of a manufactured contretemps over what they call unjustified Western fears, instigated by the United States, that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine. The Russians have also seized on complaints by Ukraine’s president and others that the Americans are needlessly sowing panic.
Mr. Putin, who has not spoken publicly about Ukraine since December, maintained his silence.
His spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters on Monday that Mr. Putin would state his views on the situation “as soon as he determines it to be necessary.”
“I can’t give you an exact date,” Mr. Peskov said. Russian officials continued to maintain they were not at fault for the rising tensions, insisting that the United States was fabricating the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
That was a rare point of common ground with Kyiv, where President Volodymyr Zelensky has also blamed the United States for needlessly sowing “panic” in Ukraine.
Russia has sent more than 100,000 troops to the Ukrainian border in recent weeks, part of an increasingly aggressive posture by Mr. Putin to protect and enlarge what he sees as Russia’s rightful sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. The Pentagon said on Friday that Russia had amassed enough forces to stage a full-scale invasion of Ukraine at a time of its choosing.
The Kremlin has accused the NATO alliance of threatening Russia and has demanded that it never admit Ukraine as a member. The possibility of a diplomatic solution has remained unclear at best.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, will have a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, but there are no plans at the moment to arrange an in-person meeting, Maria V. Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the ministry, said on Monday.
The Biden administration has said it wants a peaceful outcome to the crisis but is preparing for the possibility of what American military commanders have said would be a devastating armed conflict in Ukraine. The administration has vowed to respond with crippling economic sanctions on Russia if it invades Ukraine.
