UN Meeting on Ukraine Crisis Escalation

World Today

The United Nations Security Council is meeting in New York tonight after Russia called for urgent consultations on the escalating crisis in Ukraine.

The call come as the interim government in Kiev ordered an intervention against pro- Russian activists in Eastern Ukraine who have in recent days taken control of government and police buildings.Ukrainian officials say they “will not allow any repetition of the Crimea Situation in the East of Ukraine”. CCTV’s Asieh Namdar talks to CCTV reporter Nathan King on more details of the Ukraine crisis.

UN Meeting on Ukraine Crisis Escalation

The United Nations Security Council is meeting in New York tonight after Russia called for urgent consultations on the escalating crisis in Ukraine.

The meeting is called by Russia after a weekend of fast moving developments.

According to a source at the UN, Russia is expected to call for the protection of the Russian minority in Eastern Ukraine, and reserve their right to intervene on their behalf.

This is probably the most important meeting of the UN Security Council since the Ukrainian crisis began. The situation in Crimea was very different after all it had long ties to Russia. There was a plebiscite and a largely orderly withdrawal of Ukrainian forces. The situation in the east is different –opinion polls differ as to the feelings of the population in these provinces, and Eastern Ukraine is home to many of the natural resources that make Ukraine a viable state.

There are a large number of Russian forces on the border that Moscow says have been conducting exercises in the region. NATO and the US have described these actions as massing troops on the border and provocative.

Also this move by the pro-Russian elements in Ukraine and the threat of armed intervention by Kiev comes as the European Union, the US Russia and Ukrainian interim government were preparing to sit down for talks in the coming week. Those planned talks now have an added urgency.