The European Union appealed to the United Nations Security Council on Monday, seeking an endorsement of a controversial plan for EU navies to board and sink human traffickers’ boats in Libyan and international waters.

Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said that its primary responsibility was “saving migrants’ lives” and that to accomplish that, countries need to work together to root out human trafficking networks in Libya and neighboring countries.

“Saving lives on one side and dismantling the criminal organizations that are organizing smuggling and trafficking — the two things have to go hand in hand,” she said at a press conference at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

“It is not only a humanitarian emergency but also a security crisis, since smuggling networks are linked to and in some cases finance terrorist activities, which contributes to instability in a region that is already unstable enough,” she told the U.N. Security Council members earlier in a briefing.

Mogherini requested the U.N. endorse a strategy in which EU forces would board smugglers’ boats but would not intervene before the ships left the Libyan coast, diplomats said.

Russia, which has a veto as a permanent member of the Security Council, is strongly opposed to any such military action.

“We cannot support going so far as destroying ships without a court order or without the consent of the country whose flag the vessel flies,” warned Vladimir Chizhov, the Russian ambassador to the EU.