Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to address the Russian parliament on voting on referendums next Friday and Valentina Matviyenko who is chair of the upper house of the body said lawmakers may be considering legislation to annex Russia on the 4th of October.
Kyiv: Kremlin opened the way for the Kremlin on Tuesday to further annex Ukraine and escalate the conflict by saying that the citizens of a vast majority agreed to join Russia through stage-managed referendums that which the US, as well as its Western allies, dismiss as illegal.
Officials of the Moscow government said the four regions that are occupied in Ukraine have voted to be part of Russia. According to officials from Russia, 93% of votes cast in the Zaporizhzhia region were in favor of annexation with 87% of voters in the Kherson region 98% of voters within the Luhansk region, and 93 percent in Donetsk. The reason for the lower-than-average positive vote in Kherson is the fact that Russian officials in the region have been confronted by an armed Ukrainian underground resistance movement, whose members have killed officials appointed by Moscow and threatened people who were considering casting votes.
In a statement that appeared to sever talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to that the UN Security Council by video from Kyiv that Russia’s plans to add Ukrainian territory would result in “there is nothing to discuss with the Russian president.” Russia.”
He also said that “any annexed territory in the current world is a crime. one that is committed against all nations who consider the integrity of borders as vital for their own security.”
The outcome that was planned created the conditions for a potentially dangerous new phase of Russia’s seven-month war in which the Kremlin warned to add more troops in the fight and possibly employ nuclear weapons.
The referendums to determine whether they would like the four regions of eastern and southern Ukraine region to be integrated into Russia started on Sept. 23 and were often accompanied by armed officials who went door-to-door to collect votes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to address the Russian parliament on the referendum on Friday and Valentina Matviyenko, the head of the upper house of the body said that lawmakers may consider the possibility of annexation legislation as early as 4 October.
As of late, Russia ramped up warnings that it might deploy nuclear weapons to protect its territory, including recently bought land. Then, it continued to mobilize over one quarter million more troops to be deployed to an area of more than 1000 km (more than 620 miles).
After the voting, “the situation will radically shift from a legal perspective and from the perspective of international law and all the implications in protecting these zones and the security of those areas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Tuesday.
A lot of Western leaders have criticized the referendum as fraudulent, and the UN Security Council met Tuesday in New York to discuss the vote in the United States, with both the US and Albania planning to propose a resolution that states that the result will not be accepted and that the four regions will remain an integral part of Ukraine. Russia is expected to vote against the resolution.
The election and the summons to Russian military reservists Putin ordered on Wednesday were aimed at strengthening Moscow’s publicly exposed political and military position.
The referendums are based on a well-known Kremlin strategy for territorial expansion as well as more aggressive military actions. The year 2014 was the last time Russian government officials conducted a referendum similar to the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula, under the strict supervision of Russian troops. Based on the results of the referendum, Russia annexed Crimea. Putin used as a defense plan Russians living in Ukraine’s eastern regions, their alleged desire to be part of Russia as well as the threat to the security of Russia as a reason behind his invasion of Ukraine.
Putin has been promoting Moscow’s nuclear options since Ukrainians began a counteroffensive, which took over the territory and trapped his forces. A top Putin adviser stepped up the nuclear discussion on Tuesday.
“Let’s suppose that Russia is forced to employ its most potent weapon available against the Ukrainian regime which has carried out a massive crime of aggression that could be dangerous to the existence of our nation,” Dmitry Medvedev, vice-president of the Russian Security Council that Putin is the chairman of, posted on his channel for messages. “I think that NATO will refrain from directly intervening in the current conflict.”
The United States has dismissed the Kremlin’s nuclear talks as a tactic to scare people.
In the referendums, residents were asked if they wanted the regions to be included in Russia as well as the Kremlin has described them as fair and free reflecting the people’s determination to have their own say.
Many thousands of Ukrainians were already displaced from the region because of the war and photos posted by those who remained depicted the armed Russian troops roaming the streets to try to force Ukrainians to vote.
Mariupol Municipality Vadym Boychenko. Boychenko resigned from the city of port after Russians took it over after an eight-month siege, claiming that only around twenty percent (or less) of estimated remaining residents voted during Donetsk. Donetsk referendum. Mariupol’s population before the war was 541,000.
“A man with an assault rifle arrives at your house and asks you to vote, what do you take action?” Boychenko asked during an interview, describing the methods used to force people to vote.
Western allies supported Ukraine and dismissed the referendum results as meaningless and fake.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the ballots were “a desperate attempt” from Putin. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said while visiting Kyiv on Tuesday that France was determined “to help Ukraine and its sovereignty as well as the integrity of its territory” as well as describing the vote in the form of “mock elections.”
And, in the meantime, there was trouble for Putin during the massive call-up that he made of Russians to military duty.
The decision has led to the exodus of 200 000 people from Russia which has sparked protests against the war and ignited violence. On Monday an attacker fired on an enlistment center in the Siberian city and severely wounded the city’s head of the military recruitment office. Arson-related arson attacks scattered throughout the city were earlier reported on other enlistment centers.
One of the destinations for fledgling Russian males is Kazakhstan It was reported Tuesday that 98,000 Russians have entered Kazakhstan during the last week.
The coast guard and border security agency have reported that 66,000 Russian citizens joined the bloc of 27 nations between 19 and 25 September. This is a 30 percent increase from the previous week.
Russian officials tried to stop some of the reservists who were fleeing along one of the major routes for the exodus, and issued conscription notices along the Georgian border. According to the state-owned Tass agency, an enlistment task force handed out notices at the Verkhnii Lars checkpoint, where about 5,500 vehicles lined up to traverse.
Independent Russian sources of news have reported unconfirmed reports that draft-age people are not allowed to leave following the referendum.
As Moscow was working to increase its forces in Ukraine in the hopes of sending them to help its proxy forces who are fighting in the areas of the separatists for the past seven years Russian bombardments continued to cause deaths.
Russian barrages killed 11 civilians and injured 18 within the space of 24 hours. Ukraine’s president’s office reported on Tuesday.
In addition, Ukrainian authorities reported more results in their offensive to gain territories in the regions in which Russia holds referendums in order to increase its power.
Ukrainian troops have claimed to be continuing their offensive across their current position along the Oskil River in the country’s east, pushing farther into Donbas. A post on social media Tuesday revealed Ukrainian soldiers advancing into in the town of Koroviy Yar, 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) from the river. Ukraine’s military intelligence stated that Ukrainian forces were continuing to drive Russian forces out of the northwestern Kharkiv region, and claimed to capture the railway junction at Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi.
The human toll of the war was also evident in the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission’s initial comprehensive examination of human rights violations and violations Russia as well as Ukraine committed between the 1st of February between 1 February and 31 July, the beginning of Russia’s incursion.
Matilda Bogner, the mission’s chief, stated that Ukrainian prisoners of war appear to have been subjected to “systematic” abuse, “not only upon their capture but also in the aftermath of their transfer to areas for internment” in areas controlled by Russia, including Ukraine as well as Russia in general.
The conflict has caused an energy shortage in a large portion of Western Europe, with German officials interpreting the interruption of Russian supply as an opportunity for a Kremlin strategy to impose pressure on Europe regarding its support for Ukraine.
The risk to energy supply was heightened when seismologists revealed on Tuesday that explosions roiled the Baltic Sea before unusual leaks were found on two submerged natural gas pipelines that connect Russia through Germany.
Certain European leaders and experts have pointed at possible sabotage in an energy dispute with Russia that was triggered by the war in Ukraine. Three leaks were discovered by the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which are stuffed with natural gas, but they are not delivering the fuel to Europe.
The damage means the pipelines will not be able to carry any gas into Europe this winter, even though there is a political desire to get them up and running the analysis of the Eurasia Group told.
