US vows to press Russia at Ukraine talks

The US ambassador to the United Nations vowed that the UN Security Council will press Russia hard to discuss Moscow's massing of troops near Ukraine and rising fears it is planning an invasion.

"Our voices are unified in calling for the Russians to explain themselves," Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield said of the US and the other council members on ABC's "This Week" program on Sunday. "We're going into the room prepared to listen to them, but we're not going to be distracted by their propaganda."

Russia's massing of an estimated 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine has brought increasingly strong warnings from the West that Moscow intends to invade. Russia in turn demands that NATO promise never to allow Ukraine to join the alliance, and to stop the deployment of NATO weapons near Russian borders and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

The head of Russia's Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, on Sunday rejected Western warnings about an invasion.

"At this time, they're saying that Russia threatens Ukraine -- that's completely ridiculous," he was quoted as saying by state news agency Tass. "We don't want war and we don't need it at all."

The United States and European Union countries say a Russian invasion would trigger heavy sanctions. On Sunday, the chairman of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee raised the prospect of imposing some punishments preemptively.

"There are some sanctions that really could take place up front, because of what Russia's already done -- cyber attacks on Ukraine, false-flag operations, the efforts to undermine the Ukrainian government internally," Senator Bob Menendez said on CNN.

In the event of an invasion, Menendez said, Russia would face "the mother of all sanctions," including actions against Russian banks that could severely undermine the Russian economy and increased lethal aid to Ukraine's military.

The sanctions would apparently be significantly stronger than those imposed after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Those penalties have been seen as ineffective.

Russia has long resented NATO's granting of membership to countries that were once part of the Soviet Union or were in its sphere of influence as members of the Warsaw Pact.

NATO "has already come close to Ukraine. They also want to drag this country there," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday, "although everyone understands that Ukraine is not ready and could make no contribution to strengthening NATO security."

Ukraine has sought NATO membership for years, but any prospects of joining appear far off as the country struggles to find political stability and attack corruption.