Ukraine and US condemn referendums on Russia's annexation of Ukrainian areas

Ukraine, the United States and multilateral organizations condemned this Tuesday (27) the annexation referendums that were held in eastern and southern Ukraine so that the occupied regions in Donetsk, Luhansk , Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to be incorporated by Russia.

Russian agencies reported that the partial results indicate that the accession was approved with more than 90% of the votes in the four areas.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted a photo of himself alongside Catherine Colonna, his counterpart in the French government, and wrote: “I welcomed Minister Colonna to Kyiv to thank France for standing by Ukraine’s side. We both condemn the Russian propaganda shows called ‘referendums’ and agree that the world must respond resolutely by significantly increasing support for Ukraine and imposing tough new sanctions on Russia.”

The United States has indicated that it will present , together with Albania, a resolution in the UN Security Council to condemn the annexation referendums held by the pro-Russian occupation leaderships.

“Russia’s false referendums, if accepted, will open a pandora’s box that we would not be able to close”, declared Linda Thomas-Greenfield, American ambassador to the United Nations.

The UN itself opined that the referendums, whose voting began last Friday and ended this Tuesday, “cannot be considered a genuine expression of popular will”. “They cannot be considered legal under international law,” said UN Under-Secretary General Rosemary DiCarlo at the Security Council.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also criticized the referendums. “The false referendums held by Russia have no legitimacy and are a blatant violation of international law. These lands belong to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter, noting that, during a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “he made it clear that NATO allies are steadfast in their support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and right to self-defense.”

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