Results are seen as a foregone conclusion in favour of annexation, and Ukraine and its allies have already made clear they will not recognise the votes
Results seen as foregone conclusion in favour of annexation, and Ukraine and its allies have made clear they will not recognise the votes
Russian-installed leaders announced on Tuesday plans for the votes, a challenge to the west that could sharply escalate the war. The results are seen as a foregone conclusion in favour of annexation, andKyiv this month launched a counteroffensive that has recaptured large swathes of territory, seven months after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, starting a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions and damaged the global economy.
“From the very start of the operation ... we said that the peoples of the respective territories should decide their fate, and the whole current situation confirms that they want to be masters of their fate,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this week. “Encroachment on to Russian territory is a crime which allows you to use all the forces of self-defence,” Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russian president from 2008 to 2012, said in a post on Telegram on Tuesday. “This is why these referendums are so feared in Kyiv and the West”.
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