UNITED NATIONS —
US President
Joe Biden tore into Vladimir Putin Wednesday as he addressed the
UN just hours after the Russian leader dramatically escalated his seven-month
war in Ukraine by calling up his country’s military reservists.
اضافة اعلان
Biden accused Putin of “shamelessly” violating the
UN Charter and castigated him over a veiled threat to use nuclear weapons —
after Putin said his promise to use all military means in Ukraine was “no
bluff”.
“Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of
the UN Charter,” Biden said as he addressed the UN General Assembly, warning
that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian schools,
railway stations, and hospitals during a war that Biden said was aimed at
“extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state”.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House’s
National Security Council, had said ahead of Biden’s address that Washington was taking
Putin’s “irresponsible” apparent threat to use nuclear weapons “seriously” and
warned it could alter its “strategic posture” if need be.
Putin’s mobilization call came as Moscow-held
regions of Ukraine prepare to hold annexation referendums this week, ramping up
the stakes in the conflict by allowing Moscow to accuse Ukraine of attacking
Russian territory.
Four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine — Donetsk
and Lugansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — said on
Tuesday that they would hold the votes over five days beginning Friday.
In a pre-recorded address to the nation early on
Wednesday, Putin accused the West of trying to “destroy” his country through
its backing of Kyiv. Russia needed to support those in Ukraine who wanted to
“determine their own future”, he said.
The Russian leader announced a partial military
mobilization, with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu telling state television that
some 300,000 reservists would be called up.
‘Not a bluff’
“When the territorial
integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at
our disposal to protect
Russia and our people. This is not a bluff,” Putin
said.
“Those who are trying to blackmail us with nuclear
weapons should know that the wind can also turn in their direction,” Putin
added.
But Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky said in
an interview with Germany’s Bild media group released Wednesday that he did not
think Putin would resort to nuclear weapons.
“Tomorrow, Putin can say — as well as Ukraine, we
want part of Poland, otherwise we will use atomic weapons. We cannot make these
compromises,” he said.
Separately, Zelensky’s foreign minister, Dmytro
Kuleba, called Western allies to increase military aid to Kyiv and further
isolate Moscow.
On the sidelines of the UN gathering, French
President Emmanuel Macron urged the world to “put maximum pressure” on Putin,
whose decisions “will serve to isolate Russia further”.
German Chancellor
Olaf Scholz denounced the call-up
as “an act of desperation” in a “criminal war” he said Russia could not win.
In the wake of the reservist announcement flights
out of Russia to neighboring ex-Soviet countries were booked up for days to
come, airline data showed, in what appeared to be a rush to quit the country.
Prices for remaining seats skyrocketed.
The sudden flurry of moves by Moscow this week came
with Russian forces in Ukraine facing their biggest challenge since the start
of the conflict.
In a sweeping Ukrainian counter-offensive in recent
weeks, Kyiv’s forces have retaken hundreds of towns and villages that had been
controlled by Russia for months.
In a rare admission of military losses from Moscow,
Shoigu said on Wednesday 5,937 Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine since the
launch of the military intervention in February.
World peace ‘in jeopardy’
As Putin made his
announcement, residents were clearing rubble and broken glass from a nine-story
apartment block hit by an overnight missile strike in the eastern Ukrainian
city of Kharkiv.
The referendums follow a pattern established in
2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from
Ukraine after a similar
vote.
Like in 2014, Washington, Berlin and Paris denounced
the latest ballots, saying the international community would never recognize
the results.
Beijing, which so far has tacitly backed Moscow’s
intervention called on Wednesday for a “ceasefire through dialogue” after
Putin’s address and in likely reference to the referendums said the
“territorial integrity of all countries should be respected”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg meanwhile
denounced Putin’s “dangerous and reckless nuclear rhetoric”.
And EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on
Wednesday accused Putin of putting world peace “in jeopardy”.
“Putin’s announcement of sham referenda, partial
military mobilization, and nuclear blackmail are a grave escalation,” Borrell
wrote on Twitter.
“Threatening with nuclear weapons is unacceptable
and a real danger to all,” he said.
Kyiv said the referendums were meaningless and vowed
to “eliminate” threats posed by Russia, saying its forces would keep retaking
territory regardless of what Moscow or its proxies announced.
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