UNITED NATIONS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. Security Council Tuesday that Russia must be isolated internationally for its sham referendums in his country.

“There is only one way to stop this all,” he said by video. “First, it is the complete isolation of Russia in response to everything it does.”

More sanctions should be imposed on Moscow, he said, and it should be deprived of its veto at the U.N. Security Council and suspended from all international institutions.

Zelenskyy warned of possible annexation.

“The annexation of the captured territories … is the most brutal violation of the U.N. Charter,” the Ukrainian president said. “This is an attempt to steal the territory of another state. This is an attempt to erase the norms of international law.”

If Moscow annexes these territories, Zelenskyy said, it “will mean that there is nothing to talk about with the president of Russia.”

Ukraine, the United States and other Western countries have denounced the referendums as illegal. International recognition is highly unlikely.

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told council members that the referendums are not a “genuine expression of the popular will.”

“Unilateral actions aimed to provide a veneer of legitimacy to the attempted acquisition by force by one state of another state’s territory, while claiming to represent the will of the people, cannot be regarded as legal under international law,” she said.

(VOA)