The votes will be held in Donetsk, Lugansk, Jerson and Zaporiyia. Kiev and Western countries have advanced that they will not recognize them.
The authorities loyal to Moscow in the occupied regions of Ukraine The pseudo-referendums for annexation to Russia began this Friday, considered illegal by kyiv and its Western allies, who will not recognize their results.
The Kremlin warned that if the annexation referendums to Russia initiated this Friday in the eastern regions of Ukraine, will be considered for all purposes territories of the Russian Federation and, therefore, the Constitution will be applied “immediately”.
So, Ukraine’s potential attempts to recapture Donbas would be seen as attacks on Russia, which in Moscow’s view would legitimize any response.
Voting held in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk and in the southern ones of Kherson and Zaporizhia will last five days, Russian news agencies said.
These pseudo-referendums add tension to a week marked by the mobilization of 300,000 reservists announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also threatened to use his nuclear arsenal to protect his territory.
A hypothetical integration into Russia of these four regions, which observers take for granted, would imply that Moscow, following its doctrine, could use its atomic weapons to defend them of the counteroffensive launched by Ukraine in the east and south of the country.
“We cannot let President Putin get away with it,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a UN Security Council meeting.
These pseudo-referendums are reminiscent of what happened in 2014 in the Crimean peninsula, annexed to Russia after a vote considered fraudulent by the West.
In Donetsk and Lugansk, regions recognized as independent nations by Moscow just before the invasion, residents will have to answer if they support “entry into Russia”, according to the Russian agency TASS.
In Kherson and Zaporizhia, the ballots include the question: “Are you in favor of Ukraine seceding, forming an independent state and joining the Russian Federation as a member?”
The process will be private. The authorities will collect votes door to door the first four days of the pseudo-referendum and only on the last day will the polling stations open.