The North Atlantic Council issued a statement with a warning for the Russian Federation.
NATO condemned plans to hold referendums in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, calling them a “deception”, which the alliance does not recognize.
“We strongly condemn the plan to hold so-called “referendums” on joining the Russian Federation in Ukrainian regions that are partially controlled by the Russian military,” said the statement of the North Atlantic Council, the text of which was distributed in Brussels.
Referendums on joining Russia were urgently announced at the beginning of this week by the appointed “representatives of the authorities” of the Russian Federation in the occupied regions of Ukraine.
“Allies do not and will never recognize Russia's illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea. Fictitious referendums in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine are not legal and, if held, would be a gross violation of the UN Charter. NATO members do not recognize illegal and illegitimate annexation,” the Council said.
NATO is confident that the territories occupied by the Russian Federation belong to Ukraine. The Council also accused Russia of escalating the war it had started, as evidenced by the order for partial mobilization announced by Vladimir Putin.
“As before, we reject Russia's irresponsible nuclear rhetoric. Russia bears full responsibility for the war, the enormous suffering that its aggression causes the Ukrainian people, as well as for the price of this war for the Russian people. Russia has the opportunity to put an end to this conflict. It should immediately stop this war and leave Ukraine,” the document says.
The North Atlantic Council stressed that NATO allies remain determined to provide political and practical support to Ukraine, which continues to defend itself against Russian aggression.
“We are united to defend and defend every inch of allied territory,” the statement said.
Read also: A sudden pseudo-referendum in ORDLO may put the Kremlin in a “strange” position – ISW
Western countries have already declared that they do not recognize the results of pseudo-wills in the occupied Ukrainian territories.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he does not recognize the “fake referendums” that Russia is going to hold in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
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