UN
United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power ripped into Russia's government during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday on the Ukrainian crisis.
Power accused Russia of an act of aggression, not a humanitarian mission.. She said there was nothing to justify its conduct in escalating military operations in the Crimea region of Ukraine after the ouster of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, an ally of the Russian government of President Vladimir Putin.
"Russia has every right to wish events had turned out differently. It doesn't have the right to express that using military force," Power said.
Power said there is no evidence of any threats to Russian citizens or ethnic Russians in the Crimean peninsula, after Russia's ambassador to the U.N. had suggested Russians are "being persecuted for ideas and language."
"Russian mobilization is in response to an imaginary threat," she said.
Power called for a deployment of human-rights monitors in Ukraine, and called on Russia to "immediately pull back" its forces.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Russia was "on the wrong side of history" in Ukraine on Monday, and warned of potential diplomatic and economic "isolation."