https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/31/politics/us-russia-un-security-council-meetin...UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine crisis ends
in standoff between US and Russia
Jennifer Hansler
By Jennifer Hansler, CNN
Updated 1920 GMT (0320 HKT) January 31, 2022
(CNN)The US Ambassador to the United Nations declared Monday that Russia "didn't give us the answers that any of us would've hoped that they would provide" after a tense United Nations Security Council meeting over Moscow's escalation along the border with Ukraine ended in a standoff.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters following the session, in which the US accused Russia of planning to mass tens of thousands of troops along the Belarus-Ukraine border, that the US "called for this meeting to allow the Russians to give us an explanation of what their actions are."
"We didn't hear much," she said.
The open meeting at the UN headquarters in New York proceeded Monday despite opposition from China and Russia.
US officials have repeatedly urged Moscow to take a diplomatic path forward, warning that a renewed invasion of Ukraine would result in swift and significant sanctions -- a message reiterated by President Joe Biden on Monday while the meeting was underway.
In her remarks to the Security Council Monday, Thomas-Greenfield said, "We continue to hope Russia chooses the path of diplomacy over the path of conflict in Ukraine. But we cannot just 'wait and see.' It is crucial that this Council address the risk that their aggressive and destabilizing behavior poses across the globe."
She spoke of Russia's buildup of more than 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine, as well as US intelligence that Russia has moved nearly 5,000 troops into Belarus and intends to mass "more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border ... by early February."
"If Russia further invades Ukraine, none of us will be able to say we didn't see it coming. And the consequences will be horrific," Thomas-Greenfield said.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia claimed UN colleagues are "whipping up tensions and rhetoric," saying that the US and others wanted conflict to take place.