© UnknownLiu Jieyi, China's Ambassador to the United Nations
China abstained as 13 council members supported the resolution and Russia voted against.
The draft resolution noted that the Ukrainian government in Kiev has not authorized the referendum and said that it cannot be valid.
"This referendum can have no validity, and cannot form the basis for any alteration of the status of Crimea; and calls upon all States, international organizations and specialized agencies not to recognize any alteration of the status of Crimea on the basis of this referendum and to refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognizing any such altered status," the documents reads.
Moscow has a veto right as one of five permanent members of the Security Council.
It was "no secret that Russia would vote against the US draft resolution," Russia's envoy at the UN Vitaly Churkin said ahead of the voting. He added that Moscow would respect the choice of Crimeans.
"We cannot accept its basic assumption: to declare illegal the planned March 16 referendum where there residents of the Republic of Crimea should decide on their future," Churkin said, explaining Moscow's decision to veto the proposed document.
"The philosophy of the authors of the draft runs counter to one of the basic principles of the international law - the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples enshrined in the Article 1 of the UN Charter," the Russian diplomat said.This principle was also confirmed by the 1970 UN Declaration on the Principles of International Law, and a number of other decisions by the UN General Assembly, and the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, Churkin said.
Russia does not dispute the principle of territorial integrity, which is "of, course, very important," the envoy said.
"In is also understandable that enjoyment of the right of self-determination through a separation from an existing state is an extraordinary measure, applied when future coexistence within a single state becomes impossible," Churkin said.
In the majority of cases it was implemented without the agreement of the state authorities.
Crimea's coexisting within Ukraine apparently became impossible as a result of "legal vacuum" that followed the "unconstitutional armed coup" carried out in Kiev by radical nationalists in February and direct threats by these individuals to set their order across Ukraine, Russia's UN representative said.
On Sunday, the Crimeans are going to decide if they want the republic to remain a part of Ukraine or join the Russian Federation.
European nations and the US said earlier they would not recognize the outcome of the referendum and warned Russia of sanctions over its stance on Ukraine.
Speaking after the vote by the 15-member Security Council, Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the UN said it was "a sad and remarkable moment".
France's envoy, Gerard Araud, said he was incredulous at what he called Russia's annexation of Crimea, under the pretext of protecting Russians in the region. "This annexation ... goes beyond Ukraine, it concerns us all," he said, as cited by Reuters. "This veto must be seen as a defeat only for Russia."
Britain's UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said that the "the resounding message" from the vote is that "Russia stands isolated in this council and in the international community".
In view of all that has been dug up about the coup in Kiev, ie the snipers, the planning, the money, the leaks etc., that the USA and the EU can still support it shows way more about who they are at heart than anything else. Knowing the neo-nazi leanings of a significant part of those, who brought the UA government into place, I can only characterize the situation as depressing, irrespective of whether a conflict ever arises over Crimea, because the pattern of these kinds of decisions just continues.