10.54 p.m. GMT
The “feisty” emergency meeting on Ukraine has just wrapped up at the UN security council, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington (@EdPilkington) reports:
It turned into a pretty feisty slanging match between the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, on the one hand, and the combined might of the US, UK and France on the other.Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, addressed Russia’s professed desire to protect the rights of Russian speakers in the Crimea. “There are so many options available to Russia to safeguard the rights of ethnic Russians short of military action,” she said. “So the very simple question today is why not support international efforts, why not support an observer mission, why not pull back your forces instead of sending more?”Churkin insisted he was open to observer missions, which encouraged the UK representative Sir Mark Lyall Grant to ask him directly would he agree to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe sending observers to Crimea. The Russian ambassador looked uncomfortable at that suggestion.“We are not talking about the OSCE,” he said bluntly.As frustration levels rose, Churkin lashed back at the repeated accusations from his fellow ambassadors that Russia was fabricating the truth about its military intervention.“There’s too much disinformation going on,” Churkin said, using the exact words that had previously been levelled against him.
Source: theguardian
