UNITED NATIONS, April 14 -- After the Ukraine meeting of the UN Security Council on April 13, Inner City Press asked Ukraine's long-time Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev about the reported visit to Kyiv of US Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan.
Sergeyev replied, "It happened only in some comments from Moscow." Video here.
Well, not anymore. At the US State Department briefing on April 14, spokesperson Jen Psaki confirmed that CIA's Brennan was in "Kiev this weekend." She also said that Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Ukraine's acting prime minister Yatsenyuk earlier in April 14 that there was not yet any read-out.
Also on April 14 Oleksandr Turchynov, acting president of Ukraine, in a telephone call with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, suggested a joint "counter-terrorism" operation in Eastern Ukraine with UN peacekeepers.
This and much reporting on it ignored that all UN peacekeeping operations require authorization from the Security Council, in which Russia (and China) have veto rights.
Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric to confirm Turchynov's peacekeeping suggestion -- Dujarric declined -- and whether any deployment would require a UN Security Council vote. On the latter, Dujarric said yes, such a vote would be required.
Turchynov's suggestion and most of the reporting on it also ignored how the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations has lost any semblance of impartiality under Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head DPKO.
On the latter Sergeyev pulled out a sheet of paper from the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and cited 4000 displaced people, using the word genocide. As the last question, Inner City Press asked about the CIA's John Brennan. "It happened only in some comments from Moscow," Sergeyev said. And then he was gone, less than two hours before the deadline. Video here. Watch this site.