The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday called on all parties in eastern Ukraine to stop fighting and implement a European-brokered peace deal
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The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday called on all parties in eastern Ukraine to stop fighting and implement a European-brokered peace deal as an almost three-day-old ceasefire rapidly began to unravel.
Russia drafted a resolution, adopted unanimously by the 15-member council, in a move that US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, described as “ironic.”
Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin said: “The Minsk agreement must be fully complied with by all sides, said Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin. “We have to avoid adopting unilateral measures that would contradict the letter and spirit of the document signed in Minsk on the February 12, 2015.”
Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine fought their way into an encircled government bastion and were battling street to street on Tuesday, according to Reuters reports. The rebels say the truce does not apply at all to the main battle front at the town of Debaltseve.
“Russia signs agreements then does everything within its power to undermine them, Russia champions the sovereignty of nations and then acts as if a neighbor’s borders do not exist,” Power told the Security Council after the vote.
“The idea that Russia, which manufactured and continues to escalate the violence in Ukraine has tabled a resolution today calling for the conflict’s peaceful solution is ironic to say the least,” she said.
The resolution endorsed the peace deal that was reached at all-night talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk last week and called for all parties to implement it.