The authorities installed by Moscow in the Ukrainian region of Kherson intend to ask Vladimir Putin for annexation, a pro-Russian regional official said on Wednesday May 11.
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Figaro
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There will be a request (addressed to the Russian president) to integrate the Kherson region as a full subject of the Russian Federation
,” Kirill Stremoussov, deputy head of the military-civilian administration of Kherson, region conquered by the Russian army during the offensive launched by Moscow in February against Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the assault on his neighbor accusing him of oppressing and massacring Russian speakers there.
He had assured that he did not want to occupy Ukrainian territories.
The Kherson region, located just north of Crimea annexed by Moscow in 2014, is essential for supplying the peninsula with water.
Its conquest, the only real military success for Moscow since the beginning of its campaign, also makes it possible to constitute a land bridge linking Crimea, the pro-Russian separatist region of Donetsk and Russian territory.
Its capture should also allow Moscow to launch an assault on the great port of Odessa, in the south-west of Ukraine, without success so far, as well as towards the North towards the cities of Zaporijjia and Dnipro.
