Michelle Nichols, Humeyra Pamuk

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters). UNITED NATIONS (Reuters). On Thursday, U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken explained to the United Nations Security Council how Washington thinks Russia could invade Ukraine. He warned that Moscow is preparing for such an attack in the “coming days.”

Blinken said Russia had planned to create a pretext for an attack in Ukraine. It could also include “a fake or real attack using chemicals weapons” and that Russia may refer to this as “ethnic cleansing” or “genocide”.

“The Russian government cannot declare that Russia will never invade Ukraine today. Make it clear. “Blinken stated that it was important to state it clearly in front of the entire world.

Blinken was present at the meeting of 15 members of the council on Minsk accords. These agreements aim to end an 8 year-old conflict in Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army.

This meeting took place amid tensions following accusations by the United States that Russia had deployed some 150,000 troops close to Ukraine’s borders over recent weeks. Russia denies any plans to invade Ukraine and charges the West with hysteria.

Blinken claimed that U.S. data indicated Russian forces are “preparing an attack on Ukraine in the next days.” Blinken stated that he asked Sergei Lavrov the Russian Foreign Minister to come visit Europe next week.

Sergei Vershinin, Russian Deputy Foreign Ministry, appealed for council members to not make the meeting “a circus”. He made a baseless accusation that Russia was planning to attack Ukraine.

Vershinin stated, “I believe we have had enough speculation about that.” “We’ve long ago clarified all details and explained everything.

An American official who was a top administration official earlier warned Thursday that Russia could attempt to use the Security Council meeting to try to “establish an excuse for a possible invasion”. This warning came after Russia distributed a document to members of council, in which it claimed that war crimes were committed in southeast Ukraine.

A U.S. official dismissed the Russian claims as “categorically falsified.”

Vershinin spoke out about ethnic Russians in Ukraine and said that they were still treated as “foreigners” in Ukraine. He stated to the council that Russia’s document was “horrifying” for them.

On Thursday, Russian-backed separatists argued with Ukrainian government forces about firing shells along the ceasefire lines in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass. Kyiv stated that this appeared to have been a provocation.

Yaşar Halit Çevik, chief monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told the Security Council that while some 500 explosions had been recorded overnight, “the tension may seem to be easing.”

Numerous times, the U.N. Security Council has met to discuss Ukraine since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014. Russia has a veto-power that the United States, France, Britain and China have all imposed on it. This means they cannot move any further.