UN Security Council meets on Ukraine crisis as Biden readies new Russia sanctions

The United Nations Security Council held a rare emergency meeting on Monday night in New York to address the escalating Russian military deployment to Ukraine.

The long-simmering conflict entered a new phase Monday when Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia would recognize two breakaway regions of Eastern Ukraine as “independent republics,” and that Moscow would deploy “peacekeeping troops” to the two newly “independent” territories.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Putin’s announcement posed a direct threat not merely to Ukraine, but to every other sovereign member state of the United Nations.

“President Putin is testing our international system. He is testing our resolve and seeing just how far he can push us all,” she said. “He wants to demonstrate that through force, he can make a farce of the UN. We must act together in response to this crisis.”

Greenfield said the United States would unveil new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, and urged member states to impose severe consequences on Moscow.

“An attack on Ukraine is an attack on the sovereignty of every UN member state, and the UN charter,” she said.

The last minute Security Council meeting followed a day of swiftly escalating crises, as Washington raced to prepare for what appeared inevitable and Europe braced for what Biden predicted in January would be “the largest invasion since World War II.”