The UN Security Council is set to vote Friday on a resolution that would seek to condemn Russia for its referenda in four regions under Russian control but claimed by Ukraine, media reports said.

The US-sponsored resolution would call on all countries not to recognise the change in the status of the four regions, CNN reported. The resolution, which is also backed by Albania, would reaffirm the UN commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. This comes after the Kremlin announced that a ceremony to formally launch a process to annex the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

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The development follows recent referendums where residents of these regions took part in a voting process. After Kremlin said the annexation of four parts of Ukraine would be announced on Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said any annexation of a state’s territory by another state resulting from a “threat or use of force” is a violation of the UN charter and international law.

Taking to a microblogging site, António Guterres added, ” In this moment of peril, I must underscore my duty as Secretary-General to uphold the UN Charter. The charter is clear. Any annexation of a state’s territory by another state resulting from the threat or use of force is a violation of the Principles of the Charter & international law.”

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of the annexation of Ukrainian territories and called it illegal under international laws, media reports said. Describing Russia’s move as an act of ‘land grab’, the top US diplomat said that the US will never recognise the annexation by Moscow.

“The Kremlin’s sham referenda are a futile effort to mask what amounts to a further attempt at a land grab in Ukraine,” Blinken said in a statement.
Earlier, Kremlin said that Russia will hold a signing ceremony on Friday to incorporate the annexed four occupied regions of Ukraine.

“Tomorrow in the Georgian Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace at 15:00 [1200 GMT] a signing ceremony will take place on the incorporation of the new territories into Russia,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.