The head of the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region, installed by Russia, signed a decree on Monday to hold a referendum on joining Russia, in the latest sign that Moscow is pressing ahead with its plans to annex captured Ukrainian lands.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out any peace talks with him Russia If the country holds referendums in the occupied territories.
Yevgeny Palitsky, head of the pro-Russian administration in the region, announced the decision to start the operation during a pro-Moscow forum called “We are with Russia” organized in Melitopol, the largest Russian-controlled city of Zaporozhye.
“I am signing an order of the Central Election Commission to begin preparations for a referendum on the reunification of the Zaporizhzhya region with the Russian Federation,” Palitsky said.
Nearly two-thirds of Zaporizhia is under Russian occupation, part of a swathe of southern Ukraine captured by Moscow early in the war, including most of the neighboring Kherson region, where Russian officials also discussed plans for a referendum.
Russia-appointed officials in Zaporizhia said earlier that the administration plans to hold a referendum even if Russia does not control the entire region. The city of Zaporizhzhya is still held by Ukraine.
Ukraine and its Western allies have said any referendums held under Russian occupation would be illegal and rigged. In 2014, Moscow and its proxies held a widely condemned referendum in Crimea, weeks after its forces seized the peninsula.
On Sunday, Zelensky said peace talks with Russia would be impossible if the country proceeded with such votes in the occupied territories.
Our country’s position remains the same as it has always been. “We will not give up anything that is ours,” Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation.
If the occupiers continue on the path of sham referendums, they will close themselves off any opportunity for talks with Ukraine and the free world, which the Russian side will clearly need at some point.
On Monday, Palitsky gave no further details about the timing of the referendum. Bloomberg, citing two unnamed sources familiar with Moscow’s strategy, previously reported that the Kremlin was aiming to hold the referendums by September 15.
Kremlin-appointed officials in Kherson and Zaporizhia had already instigated a number of measures aimed at bringing the occupied territories closer to Russia and paving the way for a future referendum.
Earlier this summer, the Russian occupation authorities began handing out Russian passports to local residents in Kherson and Zaporizhia. As Moscow forced the Ukrainians teachers In the occupied territories to follow the Russian curriculum, while billboards “We are with Russia” appeared throughout the occupied cities.
In a move signaling Moscow’s intentions, the pro-Russian authorities in Kherson and Zaporizhia have set up local “election commissions” to be responsible for managing the referendums.
President Vladimir Putin initially denied that Moscow was seeking new territory when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
However, he made a series of formulations In it, he sought to justify what he described as Russia’s historical missions to restore Russian lands.
Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had expanded its war objectives in Ukraine, saying it has now extended to Kherson and Zaporizhia.
The Kremlin has also repeatedly hinted that it will recognize the referendums held in the captured Ukrainian lands, which will give Putin the opportunity to declare the areas occupied Russian territory.
Subscribe to the first edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am GMT
Ukraine, backed by Western weapons, has vow to launch a major counterattack in the south of the country.
However, the annexation of Kherson and Zaporizhia may complicate Ukraine’s attempts to recover the territories: if they were annexed by Moscow, the territories would be protected by the country’s nuclear arsenal.
Talking to BBC Retired British general Sir Richard Barrons said on Monday that a successful Ukrainian counter-attack in the southern regions annexed by Moscow would increase the likelihood that Russia would use “small nuclear weapons”.
“It will now push Ukraine into the territory Russia has declared as Russia, and at that point doctrinally and possibly politically, Russia will begin to have access to its small tactical nuclear weapons,” Barrons said, adding that those weapons would have a radius of “nearly two miles.” .
“We need to think hard about that and not see it as some kind of horrible, totally unimaginable surprise,” he said.
. “Proud zombie lover. Evil pop culture buff. Amateur thinker. Total food practitioner. Tv evangelist.”