Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls on U.N. to send Putin a message

Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Referencing Russian President Vladimir Putin's "reckless nuclear threats," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the United Nations to send Russia a message on Thursday.

"President Putin is making his choice. Now it's up to all of our countries to make ours," Blinken told the U.N. General Assembly.

"Tell President Putin to stop the horror that he started. Tell him to stop putting his interests above the interests of the rest of the world, including his own people. Tell him to stop debasing this council and everything it stands for."

Blinken's speech at the U.N. came on the heels of news that Putin was ordering a "partial mobilization," sending thousands of Russian reserve troops into action, as he tries to curtail military losses in Ukraine.

"The very international order that we have gathered here to uphold is being shredded before our eyes," Blinken said on Thursday.

"We cannot, we will not allow President Putin to get away with it."

Russia's former president and current deputy chairman of its security council, Dmitry Medvedev publicly referenced nuclear weapons on Thursday.

"Any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles," could be used to defend new territory, Medvedev said in an interview.

The Kremlin is set to hold referendums soon over whether to join the country in Russian-backed regions of eastern Ukraine.

"This is a diabolical strategy, violently uprooting thousands of Ukrainians, bus in Russians to replace them, call a vote, manipulate the results to show near unanimous support for joining the Russian Federation. This is right out of the Crimea playbook," Blinken told the U.N. Thursday.

"As with Crimea, it's imperative that every member of this council, and for that matter, every member of the United Nations reject the sham referenda and unequivocally declare that all Ukrainian territory is and will remain part of Ukraine, and no Russian claim to annex territory can take away Ukraine's right to defend its own land.