New York Russian Consulate defaced with paint amid Ukraine annexations
Russian Consulate in NYC is defaced with red paint on same day Putin annexes four Ukrainian regions after ‘sham’ referendum
- Around 1:30 a.m. on Friday, the Russian Consulate in New York was vandalized with red spray paint
- The building, located on the Upper East Side, was doused with the paint by an unknown suspect
- NYPD says no suspects have been identified in this case at this time
- The vandalism came just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the country would illegally annex parts of Ukraine
- Putin’s announcement prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to submit an application to NATO that is expected to be fast-tracked
- President Joe Biden on Friday said he will impose additional sanctions on Russia in response to Putin’s announcement
Just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to illegally annex Ukrainian territory, the Russian Consulate in New York City was vandalized with red spray paint.
Officers with the New York Police Department responded to a call about vandalism around 1:30 a.m. Friday at the building, located on East 91st Street.
The paint covers the the façade of the building, including the bars on the windows, parts of the awning, the entry doors to the Russian Consulate and plants outside of the building.
Additionally, photos taken early Friday show bits of paint on the building next door.
Red spray paint and graffiti don the Russian Consulate in New York City
NYPD officials say the unknown suspect vandalized the building around 1:30 a.m. Friday
Putin attempted to claim lands in Ukraine as his own Friday morning during a ceremony
The vandalism did not contain any words or apparent pictures.
Alleged video of the incident surfaced online Friday, showing an unidentified man spraying the building with the paint.
That video appears to have been taken by a security camera for the building next door to the Russian Consulate.
The unknown suspect looks to be both masked and hooded, using a long-necked device to splatter the paint high up on the building.
DailyMail.com asked police if they had any footage that would be shared with the public, but they said they do not at this time.
A woman was seen taking a photo of the paint splattered on the building located on New York City’s Upper East Side
Photos of the building do show at least two cameras pointed at the street.
NYPD officials told the DailyMail.com that no suspects have been identified in this case as of yet.
This may not be the first incident of vandalism at the consulate, however.
When you look up the address of the building on Google Maps, the photos show what appears to be red paint on the right side of the building.
Photos from Google Maps of the Russian Consulate show what appears to be red paint on the right side of the building, covering the window and the facade
The incident came just hours ahead of when Putin proclaimed that four Ukrainian regions will be part of Russia and become Russian citizens forever.
The ‘annexation’ of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson prompted swift action from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
On Friday, Zelensky submitted an application to formally become a member of NATO, utilizing a fast-tracked process
President Joe Biden also responded by announcing that a new round of sanctions would be imposed upon Russia following Putin’s actions.
Russian President Vladmir Putin announced his ‘annexations’ of four Ukrainian provinces Friday morning during a ceremony held in Russia
‘The United States condemns Russia’s fraudulent attempt today to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory,’ Biden said. ‘Russia is violating international law, trampling on the United Nations Charter, and showing its contempt for peaceful nations everywhere.’
The areas Putin is looking to annex make up some 40,000 square miles of Ukrainian territory.
The Russian president said he plans to protect the regions in question by ‘all available means,’ creating even more worries among the West who would be forced to act should Ukrainian territory be invaded.
Biden said Friday the US is ‘prepared to defend every inch of NATO territory.’
Putin also accused the United States of creating a nuclear weapons ‘precedent’ at the end of World War II when the country bombed Japan.
President Joe Biden said ‘every inch of NATO territory’ will be protected while discussing Russia’s illegal annexation of four Ukrainian provinces
The Russian president’s comments worried many NATO members and US allies who fear that the conflict could be inching towards a massively destructive ending.
Putin blamed the West for his invasion of Ukraine because they believe Russia is a ‘colony’ and a ‘band of slaves, and wants to break it up into smaller states who ‘will be fighting against each other.’
President Joe Biden, in addition to a live press conference addressing Americans, released a statement Friday claiming that the annexations have ‘no legitimacy’ and will not be recognized by the U.S. He also announced a new set of sanctions in response to the move.
‘The United States will always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders,’ Biden said in the statement, adding: ‘We will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of its territory by strengthening its hand militarily and diplomatically.’
The speech was for Putin to announce he is annexing four Ukrainian regions following sham elections concluding that they areas want to be joined with Russia after voters were seen being escorted by gun-point to the ballots
‘The United States is never going to recognize this. And quite frankly, the world’s not going to recognize it either. He can’t seize his neighbor’s territory and get away with it. It’s as as simple as that,’ Biden intoned.
He underlined his comments by speaking to Putin directly, amid fears that the Russian leader could seek to further challenge the west by trying to go after a member of the NATO alliance.
That could once again put the alliance’s unity to the test, after nations have spent months rallying to the Ukrainian cause and shipping increasingly powerful weapons to the the nation on its eastern flank.
Biden said allies are ‘going to stay the course to provide military equipment so that Ukraine can defend itself.’ He pointed to the continuing resolution providing an additional $13 billion ‘to help the Ukrainians defend themselves and fight back.’
He also said any country who wants to ‘live by the rules of the United States’ are ‘political masochists.’
Putin even made the outlandish claim that the US is occupying Germany in downplaying the relationship between the two nations.
Russian attacks in Ukraine have left thousands dead as the country continues to fight
A school bus in Ukraine sits abandoned and damaged after Russian bombings in the area
‘Germany is still their vassal, but the United States is still calling them an ‘equal ally.’ This is a real shame,’ the Russian leader said.
Announcing on Friday that he was annexing four Ukrainian regions, Putin delivered a blistering speech claiming Russia would use ‘all the power and all the means’ at its disposal to defend its new lands from attacks by the West or Ukraine and to help liberate the world.
The Russian despot, speaking in front of his cronies in Moscow, declared that ‘millions of people’ had ‘opted’ to become vassals of Russia after staging sham referendums in which gun-toting troops went door-to-door with clear glass ballot boxes in order to force people to vote.
‘They are our people, forever,’ he said to a standing ovation inside the Kremlin’s grand Georgian Hall before calling on Ukraine and its Western allies to abandon hopes of re-taking them, repeating a threat to use ‘all forces’ to defend the ‘new territories’.
He said: ‘The West wants to see Russia as a colony, an unfree society.’
‘One of the reasons for the centuries-old Russophobia is that we did not allow ourselves to be robbed during the period of colonization, we forced Europe to trade on an equal footing,’ Putin added, claiming he has plans for ‘intervention.’
Putin slammed the US for being the only country to have twice used nuclear weapons against another nation and also accused America of leaving a ‘terrible mark on the history of Korea and Vietnam’ with engagements in conflicts in both conflicts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a signing ceremony held for his NATO application
President Volodymyr Zelensky stands with Ukraine’s formal NATO application, signed Friday
European nations, which have been reeling under soaring energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have noted that it is Russia, not Europe, that benefits from chaos in the energy markets and spiking prices for energy.
Putin claimed that the US is to blame for the bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline.
He also called the West ‘satanic’ because of the rejection of ‘moral norms’ in an attack on liberalism. Unlike Russia, he claimed that the US and other western nations have turned away from ‘traditional’ and ‘religious’ values.
At one point in the speech, he asked the assembled dignitaries if they wanted ‘children to be offered sex-change operations,’ a practice he implied was widespread in the West.
‘From the elementary grades, perversions were imposed on children, which lead to degradation and extinction,’ he said. ‘To be drummed into them that there are supposedly other genders besides the woman and the man and offered to have a sex change operation? This is unacceptable for us.’
In his two decades in power, Putin has routinely promoted what he says are ‘traditional values’ and suppressed LGBTQ rights through a number of laws and by backing ultra-restrictive social movements and initiatives.
Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine in February with claims that the nation wants to be united with Russia – and now he has claimed four regions have voted to be annexed to the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States had created a ‘precedent’ by using nuclear weapons against Japan at the end of World War Two, in a speech filled with hostility towards the West delivered from the Kremlin on Friday
Putin’s promise to protect his ‘new territories’ will be put to an almost-immediate test, possibly within hours, as thousands of Russian troops are currently thought to be encircled in Lyman, in the Donetsk region.
The city is on the verge of falling with troops either being captured or killed in the process.
Russia is also continuing to attack the regions it now claims as part of its own country, firing a rocket at a humanitarian convoy of cars in Zaporizhzhia earlier in the day – killing at least 25 civilians and wounding 50 in the process. The cars were heading into Russian-occupied territory to distribute aid, Ukrainian officials said.
Zelensky branded Russia ‘bloodthirsty scum’ after the blast.
‘Only complete terrorists could do this,’ he claimed, telling Putin, ‘You will definitely answer [for it]. For every lost Ukrainian life!’
Putin promised in his remarks that Moscow would rebuild all the cities and towns in Ukraine that were destroyed by his assault on the eastern European nation.
Source: Read Full Article