A woman deposits her ballot in the ballot box at a polling station in the town of Krasny Yar, in the Luhansk region. /
Donetsk, Lugansk, Jershon and Zaporiyia began illegal consultations on Friday to integrate into the Russian Federation
Despite the condemnations of the UN, the international community as a whole and, above all, kyiv, the four regions of Ukraine occupied by the Russian Army, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia began referendums this Friday. According to the Kherson and Zaporizhia ballot papers, the question is whether one agrees with “ceasing to be part of Ukraine, proclaiming itself an independent state and joining the Russian Federation?” You have to answer these three questions in one by marking one of the two boxes, yes or no.
In the case of Donetsk and Lugansk, enclaves that Russia has already recognized as independent states, voters will have to answer a single question, whether or not they agree to become part of Russia. In the four regions, the polls will remain open until September 27, a total of five days.
It is striking that those summoned to the polls are fighting on the front line against Ukrainian troops or, in the case of the civilian population, a significant part was evacuated to Russia, where polling stations have been opened in some cities, although not in all where refugees from the pro-Russian areas of Ukraine have been welcomed.
It is also unknown how the census was compiled and to what extent the number of registered voters corresponds to the demographic reality of each of the four territorial entities. kyiv considers these consultations a “farce” that “will not change anything.” The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) declared illegal and “inadmissible” the consultations organized by the separatists.
They denounce that Russians armed with machine guns are pressuring the Ukrainians to vote in favor of annexation. /
The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, denounced this Friday pressure from Russian soldiers on the local population to “vote correctly” in the referendum to join Russia. As he explained on his Telegram channel, members of the “electoral commissions” armed with machine guns have visited a large part of the residents to intimidate them and persuade them to vote in favor of annexation. “There are massively registered cases of armed men knocking on doors, entering apartments and demanding to prepare passports. Local residents are told where to put a mark on the ballot”, he has denounced.
The stated objective of Moscow is that, once the four Ukrainian regions are annexed to the Russian Federation, any counteroffensive by the Ukrainian Army to recover the occupied areas can be considered an “aggression” against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Russia. In such a case, the Kremlin has dropped the possibility of using nuclear weapons as the main intimidation argument.
This Friday was repeated by the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, pointing out that any attempt by Ukraine to recover its territories after being annexed “will be considered as attacks on Russia.” He further said that, in the event that the referendums are favorable to joining Russia, “the actions of the Parliament and the president of Russia will follow (…) resolutions will be adopted and everything will be done in an operational way.” In this regard, Valentina Matviyenko, president of the Federation Council (Upper House), whose senators must give the green light to possible annexations, explained that the Chamber “will take all measures -for annexation- as soon as possible”.
historical justice
Former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev this week encouraged the pro-Russian Ukrainian rebels to hold consultations without wasting time, since, in his opinion, “they will allow Russia to use all its self-defense forces.” Medvedev believes that, once the consultations have taken place and those already annexed regions become part of the neighboring country, “invading the territory of Russia would be a crime and if it is committed, it allows all forces to be used in legitimate defense”, perhaps even the nuclear weapons, a threat that he himself has raised on several occasions.
The former Russian president and former prime minister considers that holding a referendum for accession to Russia is of “great importance not only for the protection of the inhabitants, but also for the restoration of historical justice.” “The geopolitical transformation of the world will be irreversible (…) once new territories are integrated into Russia,” said Medvedev, current vice president of the Russian Security Council, a consultative body that has actually become the center of decision major.
These consultations had been talked about for a long time and different dates were advanced, one of the proposals was on the 11th, coinciding with the municipal and regional elections in Russia, but later, due to the harshness of the fighting, it was decided to postpone them to later. However, now, when the situation on the front lines after the great Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Kharkov region is even more complicated, the decision to call the referendums has been hastily taken. And it is being done according to the same model carried out in Crimea in March 2014, which served as justification for the Kremlin to annex the peninsula.