A displayed promotion of self-determination. Russia will “consult” the population to establish the borders of the annexed Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in southern Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
“We will continue to consult the population of these regions,” said Dmitry Peskov.
He was asked if Russia was annexing all of these regions or just the parts it occupied. Russian President Vladimir Putin formalized the annexation of Kherson and Zaporizhia, as well as the other two Ukrainian regions, Donetsk and Lugansk, during a ceremony in the Kremlin on Friday.
Areas annexed but not under Russian military control
The Donetsk and Lugansk regions were annexed in their entirety, Moscow having recognized the sovereignty of the pro-Russian separatist regimes in late February, just before the Russian assault on Ukraine. But the Kremlin said last week that the borders of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions should be “clarified”.
According to the US think tank ISW (Institute for the Study of War), Moscow controls 72% of the area of the Zaporizhia region. And 88% of Kherson and its homonymous capital are under Russian occupation, according to the same source.
Russia had hastily organized so-called referendums in Ukraine’s four regions, widely denounced by Kyiv and its Western allies, following a Ukrainian counteroffensive that forced the Russian military to cede thousands of square kilometers of land.
Source: BFM TV
