Brazil abstains from UN Security Council vote and does not condemn Russian annexations in Ukraine

Russia vetoed in the Security Council of UN the resolution condemning the annexation referendums. Brazil, China, Gabon and India abstained from the vote, which had 10 votes in favor and one against (Russia). The resolution condemned “illegal referendums”, which “have no validity” and “cannot form the basis of any change in the status of these regions”, including “any alleged annexation”, and urged Russia to “withdraw immediately, completely and without conditions all its military forces” of Ukraine. Russian representative Vassily Nebenzia called the sentence a “hostile action by the West” and a “provocation”, and assured that the referendums “complied with the norms and principles of international law”. The text will now go to the UN General Assembly, where there is no right of veto, unlike the Security Council, where five permanent members – Russia, China, the United States, France and Great Britain – have this prerogative.

This Friday, Russia annexed four partially occupied regions in Ukraine: Kherson, Donestk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia. Together they represent about 15% of Ukrainian territory. In a ceremony held in krenlim, he said residents of those regions made their choices. During his speech, the Vladimir Putin said that “the residents of this region will become Russians forever”. This is the biggest annexation since World War II. “People were taken from their homeland when the Soviet Union ended,” Putin said, repeating the reference to the communist bloc. Faced with his new move in the war that is now in its seventh month, the Russian said he was ready to talk to Ukraine and asked the country to respect the people’s decision. As a result, the Russian leader, who had already threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend his territory, is free to use these resources if Ukraine tries to recover the regions.

*With information from AFP