The resolution at the UN Security Council against the Russian “farce” referendums and the annexation of Ukrainian territories was rejected due to the veto of Moscow, while China abstained along with Brazil, India and Gabon. Ten votes in favor of the motion, presented by the US and Albania.
“The US military in Europe is ready for any eventuality,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a press briefing. “We don’t see any imminent threats about Moscow’s use of nuclear weapons at the moment but we continue to monitor the situation very seriously,” Sullivan said. “On NATO, the United States has an open door policy, but for the moment we support Kiev in defending its territory,” Sullivan said.
In the almost hour-long speech that preceded the signing ceremony with the pro-Russian leaders of the provinces of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, Putin re-proposed the list of recriminations and accusations against Western countries. Starting from that of having widened the borders of NATO after the collapse of the USSR despite the “dirty lies” with which they had assured the opposite. The US and its allies are waging “a hybrid war” against Russia with the aim of making it “a colony”. But after “the tragic 90s”, when “people were dying of hunger”, Moscow has regained its place in the world and is now ready to defend “with all the means at its disposal” the territories that come back under its rule . In the folds of the fiery indictment, Putin dropped a sentence on a possible ceasefire. “We are ready to return to the negotiating table,” he said. But the response of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does not allow for replies: Kiev will not negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is its president and has indeed asked to join NATO with an accelerated procedure. One way, he threatened former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, to “accelerate the start of World War III”.
ANSA agency The Ukrainian president in a video: “The annexation is a farce. The entire territory of our country will be freed from the enemy, the enemy not only of Ukraine, but of life itself, of humanity, of the law and of truth” . (HANDLE)
The secretary general of the Alliance, Jens Stotenberg, is holding back for the moment: “The entry of a country into NATO must be decided by the allies unanimously”, he stressed. But from the West came a unanimous reaction in support of Ukraine’s right to recapture all the territories occupied by the Russians. Starting with the US, which together with Great Britain reacted by launching a new sizeable package of sanctions against Russian personalities, including the governor of the central bank Elivra Nabiullina, considered “one of Putin’s most effective allies” for her ability to keep afloat the country’s economy despite Western sanctions. American President Joe Biden assured that Washington will continue to support Kiev “with weapons and diplomacy” and asked “the entire international community” to “remain alongside Ukraine for as long as necessary”.
ANSA agency “We need compactness and unity of Western democracies” (ANSA)
The G7 and the European Union joined in the rejection of the Russian annexation. “The Kremlin’s nuclear threats, military mobilization and the strategy of trying to falsely present Ukrainian territory as Russian, claiming that the war could now take place on its territory, will not shake our resolve,” said the leaders of the assembled 27 countries. in the European Council. While the Farnesina reiterated “Italy’s full support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine”. Putin paid no attention to the reactions. “The victory will be ours”, he promised speaking on Red Square at the popular festival organized under the walls of the Kremlin. While, using her characteristic tones, the spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova responded to Kiev’s request for accession to the Atlantic Pact by stating that “the bloodthirsty butchers who kill women and children go to the NATO landfill”. As for the accusations against Russia of thinking about the use of nuclear weapons, the president replied, recalling that “the United States was the only country in the world to have used nuclear weapons twice and created a precedent”. Moscow, Putin assured, can instead count on the “indestructible love” that its citizens have for their homeland. And, confirming the mission he feels invested in, he stressed that the one underway with the West is also a battle of values. “Do we want to have parent 1 and parent 2 in Russia instead of mom and dad? Are we completely crazy?”, Asked the president, who has made one of his strong points in defending the traditional family.
Russia blocks UN resolution on annexations, China abstains – World
