States Joined warned on Monday that Russia intends to orchestrate referendums in mid-May to annex the provinces of Donetks and Lugansk, in the Ukrainian region of Donbas, similar to the one that took place in Crimea in 2014.
“The international community has made it very clear that such referendums are false, with fabricated votes, and attempts to annex Ukrainian territory will not be considered legitimate. We have to act urgently,” Michael Carpenter, US ambassador to the U.S.A., told a news conference. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The diplomat stated that Moscow has modified the objectives of the invasion of Ukrainewhich initially sought to overthrow the kyiv government, and now focuses its efforts on the east and south of the country, where it intends to “annex” the Donbás.
What is Putin’s plan?
In that sense, he claimed to have “highly credible” reports that suggest that the Kremlin “plans to call referendums in mid-May to unite (Donetsk and Luhansk) Russia“, and compared it with what happened with the peninsula of Crimeaannexed to Russia in 2014.
With these exercises, he denounced, the Government of Vladimir Putin attempt to give “an appearance of democratic legitimacy” to his plan.
Carpenter warned that Moscow it is already replacing the region’s mayors to “impose people’s councils, essentially made up of Kremlin stooges.”
Washington’s representative to the OSCE said he issued this warning to “expose” Russia’s actions, and vindicated the West’s efforts to “diplomatically isolate” Russia. Moscow.
He also assured that the OSCE is “meticulously studying” the situation in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova, where several explosions were reported last week, which Ukraine says might be used by Russia as an excuse to intervene in the area.
Putin ordered to invade Ukraine last February 24 following recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk y Lugansk.
(EFE)