US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the United States has no objection to the use of Western weapons by the Ukrainian army in areas that could join Russia.
“We and many other countries have made our position clear and we will never recognize Russia’s annexation of any Ukrainian territory,” Blinken said Tuesday at a joint news conference with his Indian counterpart Subramaniam Jay Shankar in Washington.
“I also made it clear that Ukraine has the right to self-defense throughout its territory, including the restoration of land illegally acquired by Russia,” he added.
“The weapons and equipment that we and other countries provide are being used very effectively for precisely these purposes, as we saw in the northeast of Ukraine and what we see in the south,” he said.
“Any change in the status of the territories that Russia will annex means nothing to us and to Ukrainians. these efforts,” he said.
Referendums on joining Russia are being held in the Donetsk and Luhansk republics in eastern Ukraine, and in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in the south.
The Federation Council stated that it would accept the results of the referendum and the accession of these regions to Russia.
Source: TASS