NEW YORK (Dispatches) – Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution designed to condemn Moscow for incorporating four former Ukrainian regions.
Ten members voted in favor 10, one against and four others abstained, Sputnik reported.
“The draft resolution has not been adopted owing to the negative vote of a permanent member of the Council,” French Ambassador to the UN De Riviere said at a UN Security Council meeting.
France holds the presidency of the Council for September.
Ahead of the vote, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield noted that in the event of the resolution being vetoed, the matter would be taken to the 193-member General Assembly.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia earlier remarked that the U.S.-Albanian draft resolution demonstrates the West’s refusal to engage and cooperate within the Council. He called the draft a “low-grade provocation with a goal that is clear to all”.
The Friday vote came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin held a speech before lawmakers in Moscow on the accession of the Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
“I would like everyone, including the authorities in Kiev and their real masters in the West, to hear me and remember that the people of [the four territories] are becoming our citizens. Forever,” Putin said.
“We call on the Kiev regime to immediately cease fire, cease all hostilities - the war it unleashed in 2014 and return to the negotiating table. We are ready for this,” Putin said.
Meanwhile, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday on his Telegram channel that Ukraine’s NATO application is nothing but Kiev’s request to ‘hasten the start of World War III’.
“[Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky wants to speed up NATO membership. Great idea. He just begs NATO to hasten the start of World War III,” Medvedev wrote, TASS reported.
The politician stressed that in his opinion “the guy [Zelensky] has clearly had enough of it”. Medvedev complained that US President Joe Biden said he did not recognize the fact that the new territories had opted to join Russia.
“It is strange that he remembered about us. However, it’s a shame. We could have found a good place to open an American consulate in the new subjects of the Russian Federation,” Medvedev said ironically.