US pledges to put Russia on defensive at UN Security Council

By JIM HEINTZ and ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is working to ramp up diplomatic and financial pressure on Russia over Ukraine. The American ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that Russia will have to answer for its troop buildup in a meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Russia’s veto power and its ties to other Security Council nations make any formal action unlikely out of the Security Council meeting. Meanwhile, senior Democratic and Republican lawmakers told CNN they are nearing agreement on what one called “the mother of all sanctions” against Russia. The head of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, is rejecting Western warnings that Russia may be planning to invade Ukraine.