WASHINGTON, Sept 26 (KUNA) -- "We will never recognize this territory as anything other than as part of Ukraine, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.
In a statement, the spokeswoman added, "this is when it comes to the sham referendum, the sham votes that we're seeing in the last couple of days." "We will continue to work with our allies and partners to hold Russia accountable and support Ukraine for as long as it takes," she added.
As far as what we are doing, we are prepared to impose additional swift and severe economic cost on Russia along with our allies and partners in response to these actions that we're seeing currently.
If they move forward with annexation, we've been very clear about that.
We stand with our partners around the world in rejecting whatever fabricated outcomes Russia announces and you will hear more from us in the coming days on this," she said.
Meanwhile, US State Department Ned Price said, "the United States will never recognize seized Ukrainian territory as anything other than part of Ukraine. We stand by Ukraine's sovereignty." (end) rsr.mb