Status: 09/24/2022 05:25 a.m
The US wants to impose tough economic sanctions if Russia annexes parts of Ukrainian territory after the sham referendums. This was announced by President Biden.
In view of the sham referendums started yesterday in Russian-controlled Ukrainian areas, the US has threatened the government in Moscow with further sanctions in the event of annexations. “Russia’s referendums are a farce – a pretext for attempting to annex parts of Ukraine by force in a flagrant violation of international law,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement. “The United States will never recognize Ukrainian territory as anything other than a part of Ukraine,” the statement said.
The US government is ready to impose additional economic penalties on Russia if Russia wants to annex more parts of Ukraine, said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. President Biden said the US is working with its allies and partners to ensure that further “quick and tough” economic action is taken against Russia.
Zelenskyj: The world will react fairly to pseudo-referendums
In his video message yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was convinced that the international community would react appropriately to the so-called referendums. “The world will react absolutely fairly to the pseudo-referendums – they will be unequivocally condemned,” Zelensky said. He spoke of crimes against Ukrainian law and international law.
The heads of state and government of the seven leading democratic economic powers (G7) had strongly condemned the sham referendums in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. They served as a “false pretext” to change the status of sovereign Ukrainian territory that fell victim to Russian aggression, they explained. “These actions are a clear breach of the United Nations Charter and international law,” it said.
Russian annexation likely
Despite international protests, so-called referendums on annexation by Russia were started yesterday morning in four Russian-controlled areas in Ukraine, namely in the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass and in the southern Ukrainian regions of Cherson and Zaporizhia. The “referendums” are scheduled to run until Tuesday, after which a rapid annexation of the affected regions by Russia is expected. Such a connection as a result of the “referendums” is classified as illegal by the West.