The authorities installed by Moscow in several regions of Ukraine announced on Tuesday the urgent celebration of the September 23 to 27 referendums on annexation to Russia, in the midst of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Ukraine responded immediately, promising to “liquidate” the Russian “threat”.
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The pro-Russian separatist territories of Donetsk Y Luganskin the Donbas region (eastern Ukraine), as well as the regions of Kherson (south) and Zaporizhia (southeast), all occupied by the Russian army, announced these votes.
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This comes as Ukraine enters its eighth month of war and all these areas are the scene of fighting and bombing.
These referendums, based on the model that confirmed Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 – denounced by the international community – are being prepared several months ago.
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But his schedule seems to have accelerated due to the Ukrainian offensive that forced the Russian army to withdraw in the northeast of the country.
It was the head of the self-proclaimed “Parliament” of Lugansk, Denis Miroshnichenko, who first announced that the consultation would be held, over four days from Friday.
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AFP)
Blackmail and Russian reverse
“The Council of the nation decides to set the dates of the vote for the referendum from September 23 to 27,” he declared, quoted by the official Lugansk information portal.
Shortly after the official Donetsk press agency announced an identical schedule, followed by the head of the Kherson occupation administration, Vladimir Saldo. A pro-Russian official did the same for the Zaporizhia region.
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Ukraine warned on Tuesday that the Russian threat will be “liquidated”. “Ukraine is going to solve the Russian question. The threat can only be eliminated by force”The head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andrii Yermak, wrote on Telegram, denouncing “blackmail” by Moscow motivated by “fear of defeat.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba assured that Ukraine will “continue to liberate its territories, whatever Russia says.”
These announcements come after Russia has suffered spectacular military setbacks since early September. He had to withdraw from Kharkov, in northeastern Ukraine, after an advance by troops from kyiv, who benefit from supplies of Western weapons and military equipment.
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The Ukrainian army has also launched a counteroffensive in the Kherson region, less brilliant, but in which it is making progress. And it also attacks in the Lugansk region, which Russia fully conquered in the boreal spring, after bloody fighting.
five days to decide
“Are you in favor of the entry of the Lugansk (or Donetsk) People’s Republic into Russia as a subject of the Russian Federation?”, is the question that the participants in the consultation will have to answer, according to the information center of the breakaway republic of Luhansk.
The separatist authorities explained that the consultation will last for five days in order to guarantee the best conditions for voters, members of electoral commissions, observers and journalists.
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“The long-suffering people of Donbas deserve to be part of a Great Country that they always considered their Homeland. This event (the referendum) will restore historical justice, whose arrival millions of Russians long for,” added Denís Pushilin, Donetsk separatist leader, in a missive.
Pushilin explained that in the consultation that begins on Friday, both the inhabitants of Donbas under Russian occupation and those of those parts under Ukrainian control will be able to vote.
Voters will deposit their ballots in their homes, interior patios, public spaces and only for one day they will be able to do so in traditional polling stations.
The separatists stress that a majority of the inhabitants of Donbas and the occupied territories will vote in favor of joining the Russian Federation, an extreme that is denied by kyiv, who anticipated that the plebiscites will be fraudulent, since Moscow has not managed to register a sufficient number of voters.
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Nuclear weapon?
On Tuesday morning, former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and current number two on the Russian Security Council urged that referendums on the annexation of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions be held as quickly as possible.
The referendums in Donbas “are of great importance (….) to restore historical justice,” Medvedev said on Telegram. Moscow regards Ukraine as historically Russian. “Violating Russian territory is a crime, and if it is committed, it allows the use of all forces of legitimate defense”he warned.
For the independent Russian analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, “Putin is going to hold these referendums to have the right to use the atomic weapon to defend Russian territory.”
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Putin is going to hold these referendums to have the right to use the atomic weapon to defend Russian territory
This represents a clear threat from the Russian president to Ukraine and the West that helps kyiv and sanctions Russia, adds the analyst, who directs the analysis center R. Politik Putin already recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, shortly before launch its offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
These regions were already under the control of the pro-Russian separatists since 2014but its integration into Russia would clearly involve an escalation in the ongoing conflict.
Upon receiving the credential letters of new ambassadors to Russia on Tuesday, Putin promised to continue his “sovereign” policy and denounced the desire for “hegemony” by the United States.
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This occurs shortly before the start of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday in New York.
Vote under the bombs
The problem is that the Russian Army and the pro-Russian militias control practically the entire Lugansk region, but only 55 percent of Donetsk, where they have never been able to break the enemy’s resistance.
“Our plans included reaching the constitutional borders and holding the referendum within those borders. But we have had to change our plans,” Pushilin admitted, alluding to the inability of Russians and pro-Russians to conquer Donbas. Still, Pushilin stressed that “all patience has a limit.”
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As for the southern Kherson and Zaporizhia, the separatists claim to control almost all of the first, with the exception of a narrow strip, and more than half of the second. “Almost 95% of the Kherson region is under the control of the Russian army,” said Kiril Stremoúsov, deputy head of the pro-Russian Kherson administration.
What do the United States and NATO say?
The United States warned that “it will never recognize” the Russian annexations of Ukrainian territory, for which it will ignore the results of the referendums to annex pro-Russian areas of that country.
“These referendums are an affront to the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity that underpin the international system,” said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
“The United States will never recognize Russia’s claims to any allegedly annexed part of Ukraine”he added.
For his part, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, stated that the referendums constitute an “additional escalation” to the war.
“False referendums have no legitimacy and do not change the nature of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. This is a new escalation in the war of [Vladimir] Putin,” Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP and EFE
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