Two Russian-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine announced plans to hold referendums on accession to Russia later this week and an ally of President Vladimir Putin said the votes would change the geopolitical landscape in Moscow’s favor forever.
The move, which seriously exacerbates Moscow’s standoff with the West, comes after Russia suffered a counteroffensive on the battlefield in northeastern Ukraine and as Putin ponders his next steps in a nearly seven-month conflict that has caused the most serious rift. between West and East since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
The Russian-backed self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and neighboring Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have said referendums will be held from September 23 to 27.
In a social media post addressed to Putin, the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, wrote: “I ask you, as soon as possible, in the event of a positive decision in the referendum, of which we have no doubts, to consider the DPR as a a part of Russia”.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russian officials based in the southern Kherson region, where Moscow’s forces control about 95% of the territory, said they had also decided to hold a referendum. Pro-Russian officials in part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region should follow suit.
Ukraine and the United States said such referendums would be an illegal sham and made it clear that they and many other countries would not recognize the results.
It is unclear how the referendums will be held, as Russian and Russian-backed forces only control about 60% of the Donetsk region, while Ukrainian forces are trying to retake Luhansk.
Pro-Russian officials have previously said referendums can be held electronically. The move would come eight years after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula.
The referendums were announced after Ukraine said its troops had retaken the village of Bilohorivka in the Luhansk region and were preparing to recapture the entire province which until now had been fully occupied by Russian forces.
Russia indicated that taking full control of Luhansk and the neighboring province of Donetsk was the main objective of what it called a “special military operation” in Ukraine, claiming that Russian speakers were being harassed and even bombed by Ukrainian government forces, something Kiev denies.
Ukrainian troops have started to enter Luhansk after driving Russian forces out of the northeast Kharkiv province in a lightning counteroffensive this month.
Source: CNN Brasil

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