SAMANTHA POWER ( United States), speaking after the vote, said, “This is a sad and remarkable moment.” The Council’s job was to stand up for peace and to defend those in danger, and history had lessons for those willing to listen. Unfortunately, “not everyone was willing to listen today”, she said. The Russian Federation did not have the power to veto the truth, or Pravda, which had a prominent place in the story of that country, as the name of the Soviet communist regime’s house newspaper. Today, however, one would search in vain “to find pravda in Pravda,” she said. The resolution should not have been controversial, since it was grounded in Article 2 of the United Nations Charter — prohibition of the use of force to acquire territory — and such principles as respect for territorial integrity, which the Russian Federation had vigorously defended, except when such principles concerned itself. In the Budapest Memorandum, the Government of the Russian Federation had agreed to refrain from aggressive military action, she recalled, noting that today’s resolution also called on Ukraine to protect the rights of all the people in that country.
The text also noted that the planned referendum would have no legal effect on Crimea, she continued. The Russian Federation had denied having carried out a military intervention, yet its troops had helped to shut airports and prevent the entry of both international observers and human rights monitors. It had shown little interest in diplomatic efforts by the United Nations, the European Union and the United States, and had refused Ukraine’s outstretched hand, all the while extending Russian forces over the neighbouring country’s eastern border, she said. The Russian Federation had rejected a resolution that had “peace at its heart and law flowing through its veins”, thereby demonstrating that it was “isolated, alone and wrong”, and placing itself outside international norms that were the bedrock of peaceful international resolutions. Recalling that veto power had been granted 70 years ago to the countries that had led an epic fight against aggression, she said that today’s veto would have consequences. Crimea was part of Ukraine unless and until its status was changed in line with Ukrainian and international law, she stressed, pointing out that there was overwhelming opposition to the Russian Federation’s dangerous actions.