UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia vetoed a U.N. decision Friday that might have condemned its “unlawful” referendums in 4 Ukrainian areas, declared that they’ve “no validity” and urged all international locations to not acknowledge any “purported annexation” of the territory by Moscow.
The vote on the decision within the 15-member Safety Council was 10-1, with China, India, Brazil and Gabon abstaining.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated earlier than the vote that within the occasion of a Russian veto, the U.S. and Albania which sponsored the decision would take it to the 193-member Common Meeting, the place there are not any vetoes, “and present that the world remains to be on the aspect of sovereignty and defending territorial integrity.”
The council vote got here hours after a lavish Kremlin ceremony the place President Vladimir Putin introduced that Russian-occupied Ukrainian areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas had been now a part of Russia and could be defended by Moscow.