UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Russia vetoed a UN resolution on Friday that would condemn referendums in four Ukrainian regions as illegal, declaring them null and urging all countries not to recognize any annexation of territory claimed by Moscow.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council came by 10-1, with China, India, Brazil and Gabon abstaining.
The resolution would also have demanded an immediate halt to Russia’s “total illegal invasion of Ukraine” and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all its military forces from Ukraine.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield said before the vote that if Russia vetoed the resolution, the US and Albania, which sponsored the resolution, would take it to the 193-member General Assembly where there is no veto “and show that the world is still on the side of sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The council vote came hours after a lavish Kremlin party as President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to annex the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, saying they are now part of Russia and will be defended by Moscow.
Thomas Greenfield said the results of “sham” referendums on whether regions wanted to join Russia were “predetermined in Moscow, and everyone knows that.” “They were held behind the barrel of Russian rifles,” she said.
She added that the “sacred principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity” must be defended at the core of the UN Charter, “each of us understands the implications for our borders, our economies, and our countries if these principles are tossed aside.”
“Putin misjudged the resolve of the Ukrainians,” Thomas Greenfield said. “The Ukrainian people have shown loud and clear: they will never accept submission to Russian rule.”
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia defended the referendums, claiming that more than 100 international observers from Italy, Germany, Venezuela and Latvia who monitored the vote recognized the results as legitimate.
The results of the polls speak for themselves. Residents of these areas do not want to return to Ukraine. They made an informed and free decision for the good of our country.
“There will be no turning back, as today’s draft resolution will try to impose,” Nebenzia added.
He accused Western nations on the council of “overt hostilities”, saying they had reached a “new low” by introducing a resolution condemning a council member and forcing Russia to veto it so they could “make it waxy lyrical”.
Under a resolution adopted earlier this year, Russia must defend its veto before the General Assembly in the coming weeks.
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