Pro-Russian breakaway territories in Ukraine’s Donbass region will hold referendums from September 23-27 to decide on their annexation by Russia, local authorities announced on Tuesday.
The elections will take place in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, whose independence Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized shortly before launching his military offensive against Ukraine on February 24.
In response to calls from the pro-Russian authorities in Donbass, representatives of a pro-Russian consultative body in the Zaporizhia region, controlled only partially by Russian troops, today joined their colleagues in Lugansk, Donetsk and Kherson, calling for an immediate referendum. on its accession to Russia.
“We, the participants of the Public Chamber of Citizens of the Zaporizhia region, appeal to the head of the provisional (Russian-installed) regional administration, Yevgeny Balitsky, to immediately organize a referendum on the issue of uniting our region with the Russian Federation. ”, refers to the resource collected by the Interfax agency.
“Ideal security conditions do not exist. The sooner we are part of Russia, the sooner we will have peace,” said Vladimir Rogov, president of the local public association.
The day before, the public chambers of the self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics appealed to the leaders of the two breakaway provinces to immediately hold referendums on joining Russia, after which the Kherson region joined today and later Zaporizhia.
These referendums, inspired by the one that formalized the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea (south) by Russia in 2014, denounced by the international community, have been in process for several months.
None of the regions is fully controlled by Russia and the possibility of their integration into Russia would mean a significant escalation in the conflict, which has been going on for almost eight months.
Source: TSF
