Amid worries that Moscow may escalate the crisis and perhaps use nuclear weapons, Russia’s top diplomat stated on Saturday that regions of Ukraine where heavily criticised referendums are taking place would be under its ‘full protection’ if they were annexed by Moscow.
In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly and the international media in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attempted to defend his country’s invasion of its neighbour in February by reiterating Moscow’s untrue allegations that Kyiv’s elected government had been illegally installed, was populated by neo-Nazis, and that Russian speakers in the country’s east were being persecuted.
Russian referendums to annex territory it has seized by force were started in four eastern Ukrainian regions on Friday. The four-day ballot, which Western nations regarded as a hoax intended to justify escalating the seven-month-old war, was criticised by Kyiv as being forced upon locals who said they were barred from leaving the territories during that time and were being forced to vote.
After speaking to the group, Lavrov addressed a news conference. ‘Following those referendums, Russia of course will respect the expression of the will of those people who for many years have been suffering from the abuses of the neo-Nazi regime,’ he said.
When asked if there would be justification for Russia to use nuclear weapons to defend annexation of Ukrainian territory, Lavrov responded that all of Russian territory, including any that may be ‘further enshrined’ in future versions of the Russian constitution, ‘is under the full protection of the state.’
He said, especially mentioning Russia’s position on the use of nuclear weapons, ‘All the laws, doctrines, concepts and strategies of the Russian Federation apply to all of its territory.’
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