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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says regions of Ukraine where widely-criticised referendums are being held will be under Moscow’s “full protection” if they are annexed.
Lavrov’s comments at a news conference in the US city of New York on Saturday came as residents of four Russian-occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine continued voting on whether to join Russia, reports Aljazeera.
“Following those referendums, Russia of course will respect the expression of the will of those people who for many long years have been suffering from the abuses of the neo-Nazi regime,” Lavrov told reporters after addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
Russia has described the four-day referendums that began on Friday as a vote for self-determination, but Ukraine and its Western allies view the polls as a Kremlin-orchestrated sham with a foregone conclusion.
Kyiv says many of the regions’ residents are being coerced into casting their ballots.
The minister’s comments follow an explicit warning on Thursday by former President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, that any weapons in Moscow’s arsenal, including strategic nuclear weapons, could be used to defend territories incorporated into Russia.
Putin had also earlier pledged to use “all the means at our disposal”, including nuclear weapons, to protect his country if its territorial integrity was threatened.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said Lavrov’s comments, and Putin’s earlier statement were “irresponsible” and “absolutely unacceptable”.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
