Russian state news agency RIA claimed Tuesday that initial results from a sham referendum in occupied portions of eastern and southern Ukraine showed more than 98% support for being annexed by Russia, setting in motion what will most likely be an illegal Russian takeover of the territories to justify continuing the war in Ukraine.
There is a referendum in Luhansk on Saturday. The file has the photo/File.
According to the British Defense Ministry, Putin is expected to announce during an address to Russian parliament Friday that the four regions will become part of Russia.
Russian military forces do not fully control any of the regions Putin may annex, but the Russian president said in a speech this week that all options are on the table.
There are concerns in Russia that Putin could declare martial law after the annexation to stop a flood of young men from fleeing the country.
If Putin annexes Ukrainian land, Zelensky said diplomatic negotiations with Russia would stop.
Zelensky said that Ukrainian forces will keep fighting until the country regains all of its internationally recognized territories, which include parts of eastern Ukraine and the peninsula that was annexed by Russia eight years ago.
In each of the four regions of Ukraine where votes were taken, RIA reported annexation support of more than 98%. About 12% of the ballots have been counted, according to Russia. Western officials blasted the referendums as illegitimate and said Moscow had preordained the results, as the voting has been widely criticized. Russian soldiers in some areas are going door to door delivering ballots, which residents must fill out in the soldiers' presence, while there are also reports in the Kherson region that no efforts have been made to promote the vote. The hastily planned referendums come after a series of defeats for Putin's forces in eastern Ukraine, with Russian troops ceding dozens of settlements back to Ukraine in response to a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
In order to claim its annexation of the peninsula, Russia held a referendum in which it said almost all of the voters supported joining the country. The referendum was seen as illegitimate by many people.
Zelensky says that Russia's annexation of Ukrainian regions would hurt diplomatic negotiations.
Russia used Kalashnikov rifles to stage the vote in Ukranian.
The U.K. says that Putin will make a declaration of annexation within days.
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