Ukraine asked the Security Council on Saturday to meet on Tuesday to address the annexation referendums that Russia has called in several regions, considering them a “brutal violation” of the United Nations Charter.
The Ukrainian ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, urgently requested the meeting in a letter to his French counterpart, Nicolas de Rivière, current president of the organization, also requesting that a representative of the Government of Ukraine and the UN Secretary General, António Guterres.
Kyslytsya accused Russia of “continuing to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by organizing a mock ‘referendum’ in the temporarily occupied territories” to consult on its annexation, in which pro-Russian officials highlighted a high turnout, while Ukraine He denounced numerous coercions.
The ambassador apparently sent the letter during Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s press conference after he attended the UN General Assembly today, where he said the Russian government “will unquestionably respect the results of the referendums,” although it will not has responded whether it will proceed with immediate annexation after the publication of the results.
The Russian foreign minister also accused the European Union and the United States of not being “neutral” and of being party to the conflict.
Sergei Lavrov spoke at a press conference after his participation in the UN General Assembly and after being asked if a favorable result would mean an immediate annexation, to which he replied: “Russia will respect the expression of the Ukrainian people.”
Earlier, while addressing the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Lavrov accused the West of “unprecedented Russophobia” and “grotesque”.
“Official Russophobia in the West is unprecedented, its scale is grotesque,” he declared.
“They do not hesitate to declare their intention not only to inflict a military defeat on our country, but also to destroy Russia,” he said, defending the ongoing annexation “referendums” in various regions of Ukraine and directly attacking the United States.
“By declaring victory in the cold war, Washington considers itself almost God’s envoy to Earth, without any duties, but with the sacred right to act with impunity anywhere and at any time,” Lavrov declared.
The head of Moscow diplomacy defended the annexation “referendums” taking place in four Ukrainian regions under total or partial control of the forces, considering that the populations recover “the land where their ancestors lived for hundreds of years”.
Ukraine and the international community do not recognize the legitimacy of the consultations.
In 2014, Russia used an identical referendum to legitimize the annexation of Crimea, after having invaded and occupied this Ukrainian peninsula located on the northern coast of the Black Sea.
At the same time, a separatist war broke out in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions with the support of Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk days before ordering the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 this year.
Source: TSF
