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Pro-Russians hold illegal Moscow annexation referendums in four Ukrainian regions

2022-09-23T09:03:53.337Z


The votes, which take place until Tuesday in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, have no official recognition and are held behind the backs of the international community


From this Friday, the eve of the seven-month anniversary of the invasion, until next Tuesday, the pro-Russian occupation authorities hold consultations on the annexation to Russia in four regions of Ukraine.

None of them is totally under his control and combats take place in all of them.

There are no observers to ensure the proper conduct of a process that the international community considers illegal and to which no body grants any official recognition.

The Kremlin's intention is to establish its positions in these territories, as they did in 2014 in the Crimean peninsula.

Few doubt that the plebiscites in Donetsk, Lugansk, almost completely occupied, Zaporizhia and Kherson, partially controlled, will yield a result favorable to the interests of the organizers.

Moscow's objective in seeking the annexation of these territories is to have the possibility of increasing the military response of its Army in the event of aggression, because, if the vote is successful, it would supposedly be responding to a threat against its own country.

These referendums come at a delicate moment for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has had to make a move in the face of the defeats he has accumulated on the battlefield in the last two weeks.

The president has announced a controversial partial mobilization of the population to face the conflict, which has led thousands of young people to flee the country to avoid going to war.

The advance of Ukrainian troops has forced a rapid withdrawal of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers deployed for months in northeastern Ukraine.

The largest exchange of prisoners in these seven months, carried out this Thursday, has not been as well received in Moscow as in kyiv.

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To increase participation, the organizers are authorizing minor citizens, between the ages of 13 and 17, to vote who are accompanied by their parents or guardians, as revealed on Thursday by the kyiv authorities through information from the secret services.

Also, adds the same source, it is planned to bring families from the Donetsk region who are living in Russia.

The Ukrainian governor of the Lugansk region, Sergei Gaidai, has denounced that many citizens are being forced to vote, as published on his Telegram social network profile.

Gaidai, the legitimate authority of that Ukrainian region that is almost completely controlled by Moscow, which supports them, also adds that the Russians prepared video equipment to "film propaganda stories" about the vote.

“At a company in Bilovodsk, the boss announced to all employees that attendance was mandatory.

Those who do not participate in the vote will be automatically fired and the lists of those who do not appear will be handed over to the security services of the Lugansk People's Republic [as the pro-Russian authority calls itself]”, warns Gaidai.

In a second case, in Starobilsk, continues this Ukrainian governor, “the occupation authorities prohibited the local population from leaving the city between September 23 and 27 [the dates between which the consultation extends].

According to the available information, the occupants are forming armed groups to patrol houses and force people to participate in the so-called referendum”, explains Gaidai.

Before a single vote has been entered in the polls, the international community has already announced that the result of those referendums considered illegal will not be recognized.

This has been stated by the United Nations, NATO, the European Union or the United States.

Moreover, the kyiv authorities say they do not intend to alter their objective of maintaining the counteroffensive deployed in the northeast of the country that has allowed them to recover the Kharkov region and that has improved their positions on the battlefield to vacate Russian positions in Donetsk. and Luhansk.

The consultations are held in a territory that accounts for approximately 15% of the 600,000 square kilometers of Ukraine.

It is there, in those four regions in the east and south of the neighboring country, where Russia is now concentrating its efforts.

On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to, according to him, give official status to the two self-proclaimed independent people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

At the same time, he announced the dispatch of "peacekeeping" troops to those territories.

That was the prologue to the invasion that he ordered right after and that began at dawn on the 24th.

The industrial zone of Donbas, which is occupied by these two regions in eastern Ukraine, has been the scene of a war since 2014 between pro-Russian militiamen supported by Moscow and the Ukrainian Army.

The fact that local troops have gained more than 8,000 square kilometers in Kharkov since the beginning of September allows them to position themselves at the gates of the coveted Donbas.

It is there where the Ukrainian military hopes to continue opening a gap these days and where Putin hopes to be able to reform his military presence with the latest measures announced.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-09-23

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