Roundup: UN backs Minsk pact, touches off lively Russia-U.S. debate on Ukraine

The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution to endorse the Minsk accords for the now-faltering cease-fire in war-torn sections of eastern Ukraine.

The Russian-introduced measure was relatively straight forward with only four working paragraphs and a single Annex of two and a half pages. The resolution was approved at a council meeting which was held at the request of Russia.

However, remarks after the voting touched off a lively exchange, which prompted the rotating president of the council for the month of February, China's UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi, to remark, "Our meeting is not an open debate."

After four days of negotiations, the panel of 15 unanimously approved, through its Resolution 2202, the "Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements," adopted and signed in Minsk on Feb. 12 and the accompanying declaration by President Vladimir Putin of Russia, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in support of the accords.

German Ambassador Harald Braun, following the council members and Ukraine, said the panel's action "sends a clear signal that it is ready to assume its responsibility ... to ensure the comprehensive implementation of the Package of Measures for Implementation of the Minsk Protocol of Sept. 5 and the Minsk Memorandum of Sept. 19."

He said the accords are "in their entirety, the unalterable legal and political basis for the conflict settlement process. We hope that the endorsement of the Minsk Agreements by the council will have a strong stabilizing effect on the situation on the ground and contribute to the strict and full implementation of the cease fire and to the following political process."

"According to the current reporting by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), the cease fire has been largely holding, with the lamentable exception of Debaltseve," Braun said. "The continuing attacks threaten not only the cease fire. They also undermine the political settlement process."

"Today's Security Council Resolution is of utmost importance. The resolution conveys a stern message to those who violate the cease fire," he said. "These cease fire spoilers must know: They oppose the resolve of the international community."

Liu, speaking as the representative of China, said "the meeting of the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine in Minsk has resulted in an agreement on a series of issues involved in the Ukrainian crisis."

"China welcomes and views positively of this," Liu said. "The agreement reached by these four leaders is helpful to ease tensions in eastern Ukraine and advance the process of a political solution of the Ukrainian crisis. The agreement is hard to come by and should be cherished and implemented by all parties."

After a vote in the 15-nation council, envoys routinely explain their position with a relatively short prepared statement.

However, not for the first time, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin took exception to the remarks of U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power during her after-the-vote comments.

Power had said "we've gotten used to living in an upside-down world with respect to Ukraine," accusing Moscow of speaking of peace while fueling the conflict in Ukraine through its support of pro-Russia separatists.

"Russia signs agreements, and then does everything within its power to undermine them," she said. "Russia champions the sovereignty of nations, and then acts as if a neighbor's borders do not exist."

"Yet even for those of us growing accustomed to living in an upside-down world, the idea that Russia -- which manufactured and continues to escalate the violence in Ukraine -- has tabled a resolution today calling for the conflict's peaceful solution, is ironic, to say the least," the Washington envoy said.

"Bitterly ironic, given that this council has dedicated some thirty meetings to calling on Russia to stop escalating the very same conflict," she said.

Churkin asked for the floor after the council members and the representative of Ukraine spoke, saying that Moscow had "hoped that the unanimous adoption of the resolution would send a unifying signal to pave the way for more harmonious work in the council."

"We were disappointed by the discussion, though, since some colleagues started off with their usual rhetoric and often that rhetoric was offensive," he said. "In particular, offensive was the attempt to rewrite the Minsk Agreements in these conditions."

"I want to pick up on the figurative expression that Madam Power used on the upside-down world," he said. "She accused Russia of starting the crisis. But did we topple the legally-elected president (of Ukraine)? Throughout all these events that took place in Ukraine a year ago, Russia kept calling for a bloodless political solution."

Moscow has long maintained that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was forced from office last February in a coup engineered by the West.

"We supported the Feb. 21 agreement and we insisted on its implementation even after the lawfully elected president had been toppled," Churkin said, adding that Moscow had supported various peace initiatives.

Russia used its right-to-reply three more times in the lively discourse in which Lithuania, Ukraine and the United States also intervened. Endi