Friday, the annexation “referendums” began in Ukrainian regions fully or partially under the control of Russia, according to Russian news agencies, in a move that Kyiv and Western countries considered a “sham”.
The Russian decision was met with Western condemnation, as well as by NATO, which declared that the referendum decision had no legitimacy and would be a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations. The alliance called on all countries to reject what it described as “blatant Russian attempts to invade the territories”.
Voting in the Crimean referendum – archive
The voting, which began at 5:00 GMT, is scheduled to continue until September 27 in the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk (eastern Ukraine), and in the Russian-controlled Kherson and Zaporizhia regions (southern of the country), in the midst of the Russian military attack on Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the authorities appointed by Moscow in four regions of Ukraine announced their intention to organize urgent referendums on joining Russia, from September 23 to 27.
These referendums, which have been in the works for months, will be similar to the 2014 referendum in Crimea that formalized Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula.
It is noteworthy that on May 25, Putin signed a decree allowing to facilitate the procedures for residents of Zaporizhia and Kherson provinces to obtain Russian citizenship.
This war of referendums comes after the Ukrainian forces made remarkable progress in the past few days in the northeast of the country, as part of a counter-attack launched two weeks ago to restore vast towns and cities that remained for months under Russian control.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the referendums in Donbass, Zaporizhia and Kherson were a response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s appeal for Russians to leave Ukraine.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Thursday, Lavrov said, “The culmination of the event was the interview of Mr. Zelensky on August 5 last year, who advised everyone who feels Russian, for the sake of their children and grandchildren, to return to Russia.”