Russia envoy: Moscow won’t invade Ukraine — unless provoked

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador says Moscow is never going to invade Ukraine unless it is first provoked by its neighbor or someone else — and he immediately pointed to what he called many threats from Ukraine and provocative actions by U.S. warships in the Black Sea. Dmitry Polyansky was responding to a question from U.N. reporters Thursday about the buildup of troops along Russia’s frontier with Ukraine. He was speaking a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken assure the Ukrainian foreign minister that the U.S. commitment to Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity is “ironclad.” Polyansky said Russia has “the right to concentrate our troops wherever we want” in its own terri