UNITED NATIONS — Russia on Saturday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that declared a planned Sunday referendum on secession in Crimea illegal, casting the sole vote against it.
China, Russia’s traditional ally on the Council, abstained. As a permanent member of the Council, Russia has the right to reject any measure proposed in the body.
The Russian ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, preceded his no vote by saying that Russia would respect the results of Sunday’s referendum, but he did not say anything about exactly what it would do afterward. Mr. Churkin described the referendum as an “extraordinary measure,” expressing the Crimean people’s right to self-determination, made necessary by what he said was an “illegal coup carried out by radicals” in Ukraine. He was referring to the ouster of President Viktor F. Yanukovych, a Russian ally, in February, which precipitated the current crisis.
No one had expected the resolution to pass. Western diplomats had hoped that China would not side with Russia, which would push Moscow into an uncomfortable corner. The measure was worded carefully to persuade China to abstain — “a deliberately reasonable text,” as the British ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, put it — and it succeeded in doing so, but only after placing Beijing in the tightest corner of all.
China does not want to be seen as speaking against its strategic partner, Russia. It also does not want to be seen as endorsing the secession of Crimea, which might encourage a vote on independence for Tibet or Taiwan.
“China has always respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states,” said the Chinese ambassador, Liu Jieyi, in explaining his abstention, while also jabbing a finger at the West. “At the same time we have noticed foreign interference is also an important reason leading to violent clashes on the streets of Ukraine.”
It was unclear what the Council was prepared to do next. Sanctions are likely to be tightened or expanded by the United States and the European Union, and President François Hollande of France said Saturday that his country would review its military cooperation with Russia, Reuters reported. Russia and the West are deeply entwined in trade and commerce, even though their diplomatic relations are arguably as tense as they have been since the end of the Cold War.
Asked whether isolating Russia on the Security Council would complicate efforts to gain Russian cooperation over the conflict in Syria, the American ambassador, Samantha Power, said Washington and Moscow had been deeply divided on Syria even before the Ukrainian crisis emerged.
“We have not been able to come together, to see eye to eye on bringing about a political transition” in Syria, Ms. Power said.
The United States had proposed the resolution on Ukraine. The one-page text did not name Russia. Rather, it declared the referendum over Crimea’s secession to “have no validity.” It affirmed “the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial sovereignty of Ukraine.” It urged “all parties” to refrain from “unilateral actions and inflammatory rhetoric.”
The resolution prompted plenty of high-voltage speeches in the Council.
“Russia has used its veto as an accomplice to unlawful military incursion,” Ms. Power told the Council.
The French ambassador, Gérard Araud, said, “Russia has vetoed the U.N. Charter.”
The Australian ambassador, Gary Quinlan, said that despite the veto of the resolution, “the message from Council members and wider international community is overwhelming.”
A de-escalation of the crisis is imperative, Mr. Quinlan said.
He urged Russia to pull back its troops into their barracks and allow international monitors into the Crimean peninsula. The authorities there have not allowed observers, including the United Nations assistant secretary general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, to visit Crimea.
The ambassador from Lithuania, Raimonda Murmokaite, said people in her country and others who have lived under “Soviet domination,” as she put it, shared the same apprehension as they watched Russian military advances against Ukraine. “It’s a feeling of tremendous concern and worry,” Ms. Murmokaite said. Unlike Ukraine, Lithuania and many of the former Soviet republics are members of the European Union as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Ukraine has not said whether it planned to take up the issue in the General Assembly, which could further embarrass Russia.