Ukraine tense as deadline passes for pro-Russia militants to disarm

(Vatican Radio) The U.N. Security Council met Sunday night to discuss the escalating situation in Eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has told pro-Russia militants in the region to lay down their arms or face military action.

the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN, Yuriy Sergeyev, quoted a statement by his President, Oleksandr Turchynov.

"The blood of Ukrainians has been shed for the one and undivided sovereign Ukraine. This blood has been shed in a war which Russian is waging against Ukraine. The aggressor has not stopped and continues to organise unrest in the eastern regions of our country. This is not a war between Ukrainians. This situation of confrontation was artificially created with the aim to weaken and destroy Ukraine itself."
Russia, which has massed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s border, countered by accusing the country of having an “embedded hatred” of Russia.

United States Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power accused Russia of fomenting the crisis in its neighbor.

"You have heard these last weeks Russia disclaim any intention of occupying or invading," she said. "You have heard it publicly, and we have heard it privately."

"Unfortunately, the fact is that the armed seizure of buildings in six eastern Ukrainian towns yesterday and several more today mirrors the tactics Russian forces used in the early stages of the Crimea invasion," Power said, adding that the instability "was written and choreographed in, and by, Russia".

Meanwhile, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople sent a Palm Sunday Message to the Ukrainian people, the majority of whom are Orthodox Christians. In his Message, he acknowledged the “deep scars and open wounds from the grievous Holodomor [a mass starvation imposed by the Stalin regime in the 1930’s], the World Wars of the 20th century, and the pressure on a nation emerging from decades of totalitarian tyranny”, and exhorted them to face the trial of this current hour with “steadfast hearts and brave minds.”

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