Pro-Russian Ukrainians ask Putin to join Russia by calling referendums

The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, as well as the pro-Russian administration of the Kherson region, scheduled integration referendums with Russia for September 23-27 on Tuesday and asked the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, to accept their urgent entry into the Russian Federation.

“I ask you to study as soon as possible, in the event of a positive result of the referendum, of which we have no doubt, the question of joining the People’s Republic Donetsk in the Russian Federation,” said separatist leader Denis Pushilin. Donetskin a letter addressed to the President of Russia.

The call for a referendum coincides with the current counter-offensive in Ukraine, which forced Russian troops to withdraw from the northeastern region of Kharkiv on September 8 and drew sharp criticism from Russian politicians and regional leaders.

In addition, the advance of the Ukrainian forces on Luhansk caused nervousness among the pro-Russian forces, who were supposed to hold these referendums not this Friday, but on November 4, according to the Kremlin side, Russia United.

five days to decide

“You are for the entry of the People’s Republic Lugansk (or Donetsk) in Russia as a subject of the Russian Federation?” is the question to be answered by the participants of the consultation, according to the information center of the separatist republic. Lugansk.

Advisory bodies Donetsk D Lugansk On Monday, they asked their leaders to “urgently” convene these plebiscites in order to guarantee the security of their territories in the face of the threat from Kyiv.

They were joined on Tuesday by their colleagues from pro-Russian administrations in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye.

Subsequently, the pro-Russian head of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, issued a decree in which he called a referendum on joining Russia Also starting this Friday.

Separatist authorities today clarified that consultations will last five days to ensure the best possible conditions for voters, election commissioners, observers and journalists.

“The long-suffering people of Donbass deserve to be part of the Great Country, which they have always considered their Motherland. This event (referendum) will restore the historical justice that millions of Russians yearn for,” Pushilin added in his letter.

Russia the autonomous republic of Crimea, then part of Ukraine, was also annexed in an illegal referendum held in 2014, the results of which were not recognized by the international community.

Russian green light

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not hesitate to support holding integration referendums on Tuesday, shortly before leaving for New York to attend a meeting of the UN General Assembly.

“From the very beginning of the special military operation as a whole and in the period preceding it, we said that the peoples of the respective territories should decide their fate,” he said.

He added that “the whole current situation confirms that they want to be masters of their own destiny.”

In the same vein, Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the lower house of the Russian Federation, said that if, during a direct vote, the inhabitants of these regions “declare that they want to be part of RussiaWe will support them.”

“They must understand today that we expect from them the free will of the people,” he assured during the parliamentary session.

Volodin asked the deputies present if they supported this proposal, to which they responded with applause.

The problem is that the Russian army and pro-Russian militias control almost the entire region. Luganskbut only 55 percent Donetskwhere they failed to break the resistance of the enemy.

As for the southern part of Kherson and Zaporozhye, the separatists claim to control 95 percent of the former and more than half of the latter.

Ukrainian conviction

The Ukrainian president called “blackmail” the call for a referendum announced on Tuesday by the self-proclaimed separatist republic. Lugansk and promised that he would “eliminate” this Russian threat stemming from “fear of defeat”.

“The enemy is afraid and primitively manipulative,” the head of the presidential cabinet, Andriy Yermak, said via his Telegram account after the announcement launched from Luhansk, later joined by pro-Russian representatives of the Zaporizhia region and Kherson.

Yermak the accused Russia resort to such threats as calls for a referendum and the general mobilization of Russian men, and be able to fight only against “children and civilians.”

However, he said that Ukraine would “solve” the Russian problem, and stressed that Moscow’s “threats” could only be eliminated “by force.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, in turn, said that the “pseudo-referendum” would not change anything, just like no mobilization.

“Russia is and remains an aggressor that illegally occupies parts of Ukraine,” he wrote on his Twitter account, stressing that for this reason, Kyiv “will continue to liberate” its territories, regardless of what Moscow says.

(As reported by EFE)

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