(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau considers the referendums being held in the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine “extremely disturbing and absolutely unacceptable” and believes that Moscow is orchestrating an annexation.
Posted at 5:20 p.m.
“If you think about it, they are preparing the annexation of the occupied regions of Ukraine so that they can accuse the Ukrainians of invading Russian territories,” he decried in a press briefing on Friday. sidelines of a meeting with the President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol.
Moscow had started earlier in the day its operation of dummy referendums in Ukrainian regions under its control of Luhansk, Kherson, Donetsk and Zaporizhia, confirmed pro-Russian representatives of these regions. Citizens are called upon to indicate on the ballot papers whether they want their region to be integrated into Russia.
In his response, Trudeau also argued that the “unprecedented situation” in which Russia is violating central UN principles will only get worse with referendums.
“The reality is that (the Ukrainians) are defending their homeland, their territory, their sovereignty,” he insisted.
Asked whether he was in favor of withdrawing Moscow’s veto on the UN Security Council, the Prime Minister did not directly answer the question.
“We are in a rather special situation where one of the countries responsible for the founding of the United Nations, which sits on the Permanent Security Council, is now in flagrant violation of the most fundamental principles […] values, agreements and rules established by the United Nations,” he said.
The referendums come hot on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering a partial conscription of 300,000 reservists to bolster frontline ranks in Ukraine.
With information from The Associated Press