Russian UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Monday that his country condemns the U.S. military action against Venezuela over the weekend.

"We firmly condemn the act of armed aggression by the United States against Venezuela in breach of all norms of international law," Nebenzia told an emergency meeting of the Security Council following the U.S. assault on Venezuela.

He called on the U.S. leadership to immediately release Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, both currently being held in New York.

Nebenzia said Russia is particularly appalled by the unprecedented cynicism on the part of Washington, which does not even attempt to conceal the true objectives of its criminal operation, namely the establishment of unlimited control over Venezuela's natural resources and assertion of its hegemonic ambitions in Latin America.

"In this way, Washington is generating fresh momentum for neocolonialism and imperialism, which have been repeatedly and decisively repudiated by the peoples of this region and the Global South as a whole," he said.

In the current situation, it is extremely important for the entire international community to stand united and definitively reject the methods and instruments of U.S. military foreign policy, which were vividly demonstrated in the case of Venezuela, said the Russian diplomat.

The United States must not be allowed to proclaim itself as a kind of supreme judge, which alone bears the right to invade any country, to determine who is guilty, to hand down and enforce punishments, irrespective of such notions as international law, sovereignty and non-intervention, said Nebenzia.