Today, Wednesday, the pro-Russian governor of Lugansk asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to formally annex the region, and the governor of Khersonsk formally asked the Russian president to annex the region to Russia.
“Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich.. I ask you to consider the question of the accession of the Lugansk People’s Republic to Russia as a member of the Russian Federation,” said the pro-Russian separatist leader, Leonid Pasichnik, in a text posted on “Telegram”, and sent a similar message to Vladimir Saldo, who heads the occupation administration. In occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine.
While the United States plans to pass a United Nations resolution condemning the referendums held by Russia to annex Ukrainian lands, the Donetsk authorities announced The final result of the referendum of citizens to join Russia, earlier today. Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath correspondent stated that the result registered 99.23% of the votes of the electorate who want to join the Russian Federation.
As for the other provinces, according to our correspondent, Lugansk province registered 98.42% of the vote wanting to join Russia, while Zaporizhia Province registered 93.1%, while Kherson Province recorded 87.5% of the vote wanting to join Russia.
US officials said on Tuesday that Washington was also preparing a new round of sanctions once morest Russia in the event of… annexation of Ukrainian territoryAdd to A $1.1 billion arms package For Kiev will be announced soon.
The voting, which was hastily arranged, took place over five days in the four regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Zaporizhia and Kherson in the south, which together make up regarding 15 percent of Ukraine’s territory.
For its part, Ukraine said that Moscow’s vote in four Ukrainian regions on joining Russia was “null and worthless” and that Kyiv would continue its efforts to liberate its lands occupied by Russian forces. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry urged its international partners to impose tough new sanctions on Moscow and provide more military aid to Kyiv. “Ukraine will never agree to any ultimatums,” the ministry said in a statement.
On the other hand, the Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) said that the Council may discuss The annexation of these areas on the fourth of October.
“The results are clear. Welcome home, in Russia!” Dmitry Medvedev, the country’s former president and now deputy head of the National Security Council, said on Telegram.
“This farce in the occupied territories cannot even be described as a simulation of a referendum,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address late on Tuesday.
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, said during a meeting of the Security Council that her country It will present a council resolution urging member states not to recognize Any change in the status of Ukraine and obligating Moscow to withdraw its forces.
Russia can veto any Security Council resolution, but the US envoy said that would prompt Washington to refer the issue to the United Nations General Assembly.
Russia’s ambassador to the organization, Vasily Nebenzia, said at the meeting that the referendums were conducted transparently and in line with electoral standards.
And if Russia annexes the four Ukrainian regions, Putin might portray any Ukrainian attempt to retake them as an attack on Russia itself.
Putin said last week that he was ready to use nuclear weapons to defend his country’s “territorial integrity”.
But Mikhailo Podolak, Zelensky’s adviser, said Kyiv would not be affected by nuclear threats or the annexation referendum and would continue its plan to reclaim all of its territory occupied by invading Russian forces.
He added that Ukrainians who helped organize the referendums would face charges of treason and a prison sentence of at least five years. Ukrainians who were forced to vote will not be punished.
None of the four regions where the referendums were held is entirely under Moscow’s control, and Ukrainian forces have announced further advances since the defeat of Russian forces in the Kharkiv region this month.
Zelensky described the Donetsk region in the east as still a strategic priority for his country and for Russia as well, pointing to fierce battles in many towns.
The Ukrainian Army’s General Staff said late on Tuesday that Russian forces had bombed seven towns in Donetsk.
The army said that 20 towns in the Zaporizhia region in south-central Ukraine and 35 towns and villages in the Kherson region in the south were also bombed.
