Thursday’s meeting in New York came amid the continuing crisis in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula where the lawmakers unanimously declared they wanted to join Russia and would put the decision to voters in a referendum set for March 16. The new Ukrainian government, however, has declared the planned vote illegal.
Ukraine’s interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk confronted Russia in front of the council, accusing Moscow of "military aggression" that has "no reason and no grounds."
“This is absolutely and entirely unacceptable in the 21st century, to resolve any kind of conflict with tanks, artillery and boots on the ground,” he added.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin answered that “Russia does not want war and neither do the Russians, and I’m convinced the Ukrainians don’t want that either.”
Churkin also defended the referendum as arising from a legal vacuum in Crimea, which itself was the result of the "unconstitutional overthrow of the government in Kiev" last month.
The previous Security Council meetings on Ukraine ended in stalemate after Russia dismissed criticism of its actions in Ukraine.
Russia sent its troops to Crimea after the Russian parliament gave the green light to President Vladimir Putin to use armed forces "to protect Russia’s interests in that region."
The United States and its European allies have repeatedly threatened Russia with sanctions over its actions in Ukraine, particularly its military build-up in the Crimean territory.
Political crisis erupted in Ukraine in November 2013 after the former president, Viktor Yanukovych, refrained from signing the Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.
On February 23, the Ukrainian parliament ousted Yanukovych and named Oleksandr Turchynov, the legislature’s newly-elected speaker, as interim president.
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