The government of United States of America that decided will impose sanctions on anyone who supports the accession of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions to Russia. This was stated by the relevant authorities in the voice of White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan during today’s meeting. For his part, the Russian President Vladimir Putin officially signed the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions this Friday occupied by his army and affirmed that its residents “will be our citizens forever”.
In a press conference from the White House, the security adviser told the Sputnik news agency Sullivan warned: “We want to send a clear message to the rest of the world that those companies, those individuals and those countries that side with Russia on this issue of illegal annexation will be sanctioned.”.
At the same time the US President Joe Biden told his Russian counterpart that he would not “scare or intimidate” us NATO allies after his territorial advance. “Putin’s actions are a sign that he is in trouble. You can’t seize your neighbor’s territory and get away with it. The United States and NATO allies stand ready to defend every inch of their territory.. Putin, don’t misunderstand these words every inch,” he said.
On the other hand, Russia vetoed a resolution attempting to condemn referenda on annexation, which the UN Security Council has described as “illegal and fraudulent”. and that in turn demanded the immediate withdrawal of Moscow of the Ukrainian territory. Russia was the only vote against the text proposed by the United States and Albania, receiving 10 supports and 4 abstentions (China, India, Brazil and Gabon).
Faced with the Russian veto, out Washington announced that it would submit a similar proposal to the United Nations General Assembly where no single state can block a decision, but whose decisions carry less weight. “The United Nations was built on the idea that one country would never again be allowed to take another’s territory by force,” said Thomas Greenfield, a US diplomat. After their veto, they in turn pointed out from Moscow that, according to the EFE agency, it was a “provocation” by the West.
Zelenskyy calls for Ukraine’s “accelerated” NATO accession
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, formally applied for the country to join NATO and at the same time requested that the procedure in “accelerated” form in response to President Putin’s official signature of adding four areas occupied by the Russian army to his territory. At the same time, the Ukrainian leader declared that he was already part of an alliance and that in theory are forced to reply as a block to aggression against a member state.
The Ukrainian leader described the step he took with this request as “crucial for the security of the entire community of free nations” and is aimed directly at the international community, for their lack of “help” in the face of the invasion since the end of February. “Russia would not have stopped at our borders if we had not stopped them,” he noted.
Furthermore, by his own admission, Zelensky put that Ukraine proved to be “fully compliant” with the standards set by NATO for inclusion as a member state, after months of mutual cooperation. While he stressed on the annexation: “Russia is trying to steal something that does not belong to it. It wants to rewrite history and redraw the boundaries with assassinations, torture, blackmail and lies.”