After Russia’s stunning retreat from northeastern Ukraine earlier this month, Western officials puzzled over what President Vladimir V. Putin, seemingly backed into a corner, might do next.
In the space of 36 hours on Monday and Tuesday, the Kremlin delivered its answer in a tightly choreographed display in Russia’s state news media: Four Ukrainian regions occupied virtually in whole, or in part, by Russia would hold “referendums” on joining Russia, a move widely seen as a prelude to annexation of those territories by Russia and a potential escalation of the war.
For months, Russia’s occupation authorities in eastern and southern Ukraine have said they were making plans for a referendum that would call on Moscow to annex those regions and declare them to be Russian territory. The Kremlin, however, has remained mysterious about when and whether those referendums would take place, apparently seeking to leave its options open as Russian forces struggled to make major gains on the front line.
But Ukraine’s surprise battlefield gains this month forced Mr. Putin’s hand, analysts said. Annexation of parts of Ukraine by Russia — even if unrecognized by the international community — would send a signal to the world that Russia was prepared to defend it as though it was Russian territory, including, potentially, with its arsenal of nuclear warheads.
Dmitri A. Medvedev, the former Russian president and the vice chairman of Mr. Putin’s Security Council, posted on Telegram that the referendums had “huge significance” because the Kremlin would consider an attack on them tantamount to an attack on Russian territory.
“Encroaching on the territory of Russia is a crime, the commission of which allows you to use all the forces of self-defense,” Mr. Medvedev wrote.
The moves come as Mr. Putin struggles to recover from setbacks not just on the battlefield, but also on the international stage. At a regional summit in Uzbekistan last week, Mr. Putin for the first time acknowledged that both China and India — critical supporters of Russia’s economy amid Western sanctions — had “concerns” about the war.
Annexing territory is a precedent Mr. Putin set with Crimea in 2014, which came after a referendum that was widely dismissed as a sham in the West — but that Mr. Putin has used to justify his threat that he was ready for all-out war if Ukraine sought to retake the peninsula by force.
President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Tuesday referred to the “sham” votes as a possible precursor to the Kremlin’s trying to mobilize more of the Russian public for the war. “The United States will never recognize Russia’s claims” to any purportedly annexed parts of Ukraine, Mr. Sullivan told reporters.
On Monday, Russia’s propaganda apparatus launched what appeared to be a scripted display meant to show that the upcoming referendums stemmed from a grass-roots desire by the residents of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine to join Russia. Mr. Putin has characterized Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions as being a rightful part of Russia.
The choreography began when the Russian state news media reported that a civic advisory body to the government of the “Luhansk People’s Republic” had put forward “an initiative to immediately hold a referendum” to recognize the region “as a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.” Luhansk is one of the two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine that Mr. Putin declared independent in February.
Later on Monday, the same advisory body of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” — the other breakaway province — also called for a referendum. The Russian-backed leader of the republic then posted on social media a video of himself holding a cellphone to his ear and purportedly addressing his Luhansk counterpart to discuss the appeals for a referendum.
“This is nothing but the reflection of the opinion of our people that has long been in the air,” the Donetsk leader, Denis Pushilin, says in the video.
On Tuesday, the occupation authorities of two other Ukrainian regions — Kherson and Zaporizka — also announced plans for a referendum.
The move came as Russia prepared for an intensifying Ukrainian counterattack, and after Russia’s embarrassing retreat from northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region this month. The Zaporizka region remains partly controlled by Ukraine, including its main city, Zaporizhzhia. In the Kherson region in the south, which Russia quickly captured after invading in February, Ukraine has been mounting a counteroffensive, though its progress has been deliberate, and costly in terms of casualties.
“They are afraid that Russia will leave,” the Russian-imposed head of the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, said of the region’s residents on Tuesday, according to RIA Novosti. “People want the certainty that they will not be left behind.”
By Tuesday afternoon, the occupation authorities of all four regions had announced that the referendums would start on Friday and last five days. On social media, Russian cheerleaders of the war who have been criticizing the Kremlin for not being aggressive enough in Ukraine celebrated the developments as a possible turning point.
Jim Tankersley contributed reporting.
World - Latest - Google News
September 21, 2022 at 03:21AM
https://ift.tt/j179Zvq
Moscow Moves to Stage Ukraine Annexation Votes: Live Updates - The New York Times
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/4kT97Xi
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Moscow Moves to Stage Ukraine Annexation Votes: Live Updates - The New York Times"
Post a Comment