The US and allied nations sought to isolate Russia on Monday at an emergency UN Security Council meeting over the Ukraine crisis, calling Moscow’s recognition of two separatist regions and the deployment of Russian troops a blunt defiance of international law that risks war.

The unusual late-evening meeting of the Council was requested by Ukraine after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered troops into the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, escalating a conflict that western officials warn could explode into one of the biggest armed clashes in Europe since World War II.

The UN meeting quickly turned into a diplomatic rebuke of Russia’s actions, which were condemned as a violation of the United Nations Charter and the sanctity of national borders. “Russia’s clear attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is unprovoked,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American ambassador to the UN, told fellow diplomats.

She ridiculed Putin’s assertion that Russian forces had been deployed as peacekeepers and called his attempt to recreate the Russian empire an antiquated throwback.

“Putin wants the world to travel back in time. To a time before the UN. To a time when empires ruled the world,” she said. “But the rest of the world has moved forward. It is not 1919. It is 2022.”

The representatives of France and Britain issued similar denunciations. “Russia is choosing the path of confrontation,” said France’s ambassador, Nicolas de Rivière. Britain’s ambassador, Barbara Woodward, said: “Russia has brought us to the brink. We urge Russia to step back.”

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia of Russia, who is president of the council for February and was obliged to schedule the meeting, categorically rejected any criticism.

He framed his country’s actions as help for the Russian-speaking inhabitants of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, known as the Donbas, which have been engaged in a low-level war with Ukraine since 2014. Nebenzia described them as victims of Ukrainian attacks and subterfuge. The meeting adjourned after 90 minutes, with no action taken. Thomas-Greenfield said council members had “sent a unified message — that Russia should not start war”.

No China support

China on Tuesday did not criticise Putin’s orders. It offered no support either.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, expressed concern about what he called a worsening situation in Ukraine during a telephone conversation with secretary of state Antony J. Blinken, according to a statement by the ministry of foreign affairs.

Without mentioning Russia, Wang called on all sides to uphold the principles of the UN Charter, which protects member states’ sovereignty and territorial integrity.

At the same time, echoing earlier Chinese statements, Wang seemed to recognise Putin’s grievances. “Every country’s legitimate security concerns should be respected,” he said.

(New York Times News Service)