The Kremlin is moving hastily to stage sham votes on annexing the regions of Ukraine its forces still control, after Kyiv’s military drove Russian troops from large areas of territory taken in their seven-month-old invasion.
The so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson, may hold their votes as soon as this weekend, Interfax quoted officials as saying Tuesday. Ukraine and its allies have denounced the referendums as illegal and few countries are likely to recognize the results. Russian-backed officials in Zaporizhzhia, where they don’t hold even the regional capital, still vowed to move quickly toward a vote.
In Moscow, officials said they’d grant the regions’ requests to be annexed if they made them. Former President Dmitry Medvedev, who’s now deputy head of the Security Council, said the annexation would be “irreversible” and enable Russia to use “all possible force in self-defense” in the newly-acquired territory.
