U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said there is “no middle ground,” and only Russia is “culpable” for the conflict. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday pleaded for peace, asking Moscow to send its troops home.
As the United Nations Security Council convened and called for Russia to not move forward with an attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” seeking the “demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine,” in an apparent declaration of war.
Thomas-Greenfield called it a “perilous moment.” Blasts could be heard in Kyiv soon after Putin’s speech, which was televised at around 5:45 a.m. Moscow time.
“We’re here for one reason and one reason only: To ask Russia to stop. Return to your borders. Send your troops and your tanks and your planes back to their barracks and hangars. And send your diplomats to the negotiating table, back away from the brink before it is too late,” Thomas-Greenfield said, adding that what the U.S. and its allies had predicted has become true.