Western countries and the United Nations have joined Ukraine in strongly denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to proclaim the annexation of four occupied Ukrainian regions.
On September 30, Russia formally declared the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia (about 15% of the whole territory) in a significant escalation in the war that began on February 24.
The move, which is said to be the biggest annexation in Europe since World War Two, has been strongly condemned by Western nations and even many of Russia’s close allies.
Ukraine: Ukraine said its troops would continue freeing its territory occupied by Russia and that “nothing changes” after Putin’s annexation proclamation.
“By attempting to annex Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, Putin tries to grab territories he doesn’t even physically control on the ground,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has signed a formal bid for accelerated NATO membership.
United States: The US imposed new sanctions on Russia targeting hundreds of people and companies, including those in Russia’s military-industrial complex.
“Make no mistake: these actions have no legitimacy. The United States will always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders,” President Joe Biden said, adding that his country would “rally the international community to both to denounce these moves and to hold Russia accountable”.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US had taken “swift and severe measures in response to President Putin’s attempt to annex regions of Ukraine – a clear violation of international law”.
Group of Seven: Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers said they would “never recognize” Russia’s annexation move, “nor the sham ‘referenda’ conducted at gunpoint”. Putin’s annexation efforts “constitute a new low point in Russia’s blatant flouting of international law”, the ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, said in a statement.
European Union: “The illegal annexation proclaimed by Putin won’t change anything. All territories illegally occupied by Russian invaders are Ukrainian land and will always be part of this sovereign nation,” Ursula von der Leyen said, adding that the commission was proposing “a new package of biting sanctions against Russia”.
Russia vetoes UN resolution on Ukraine annexation
Russia on Friday used its veto power to dismiss a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council seeking to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory.
Russia’s strategic partners China as well as India, Brazil and Gabon abstained from voting on the resolution. Ten nations voted in favor.
“This is exactly what the Security Council was made to do. Defend sovereignty, protect territorial integrity, promote peace and security,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said at the beginning of the meeting.
“The United Nations was built on an idea that never again would one country be allowed to take another’s territory by force,” she said.
Meanwhile Russia’s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, protested that it was unprecedented to seek out condemnation of one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council.
“Do you seriously expect Russia to consider and support such a draft? And if not, then it turns out that you are intentionally pushing us to use the right of the veto in order to then wax lyrical about Russia abusing this right,” Nebenzia said.
The bid, co-sponsored by the United States and Albania, would have rejected the “illegal” referendums held in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and sought all states not to recognize any alterations to Ukraine’s borders.
Additionally, it would have called on Russia to remove troops immediately from Ukraine, ending the invasion launched on February 24.
“In the General Assembly, the nations of the world will say loud and clear: It is illegal, and simply unacceptable, to attempt to redraw another country’s borders through force. It goes against everything – everything – the UN stands for” said U.S. Ambassador to UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.