U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Samantha Power has said that the events in the eastern regions of Ukraine, as well as in Crimea, are a well-planned campaign by Russia.
“The actions the world witnessed in Crimea – and the denials of Russian involvement in the lead-up to its illegal annexation and occupation – are repeating themselves in eastern Ukraine… It is clear that these actions were not a set of spontaneous events or homegrown, but rather a well-orchestrated professional campaign of incitement, separatism, and sabotage of the Ukrainian state. And there is substantial evidence of involvement from Russia,” she said at a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Wednesday.
Power noted that Russia was now “diverting attention from its own actions, its own territorial expansion, its own fear-mongering, by trying to change the subject.”
“Well, it won’t work. The contrast between the actions of the Ukrainian government and those of the Russian troops could not be starker,” she said.
Power said that the Ukrainian authorities had made efforts to resolve the situation peacefully through dialogue and offered amnesty for protesters.
“Ukrainian security forces have responded more carefully and in more measured ways to provocations in the East than – that would be difficult for any of us to accept in our own countries,” she said.
