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Russian troops have been deployed in Luhansk to defend it, while Ukrainian forces continue to advance, and Kyiv is attempting to retake occupied areas the Kremlin has held for months.
“Units are making slow advance on at least two axes east of the line of the Oskil and Siverskyy Donets rivers, where forces had consolidated after their previous advance earlier this month,” Britain’s MoD said in its intelligence update on Wednesday.
RUSSIA CLAIMS SECURE UP TO 98% SUPPORT FOR ANNEXION IN CONTROVERSIAL REFERENCES: REPORT
Ukrainian soldiers check the site where the body of a Ukrainian soldier was found inside an armored vehicle in an area near the border with Russia in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Monday, September 19, 2022. In this operation, seven bodies of Ukrainian soldiers were recovered from what had been on the battlefield for the past few months. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Defense officials said Russian troops are now “putting up a more substantial defense than before” as Ukrainian forces have pushed front lines out of Kharkiv while advancing on Luhansk.
Luhansk, located in the northern Donbass region, remains a top priority in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort as he seeks to illegally annex several regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Russian proxies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson on Tuesday ended five days of “voting” in a referendum aimed at winning support for occupying the four regions.
Western officials and Kyiv have condemned the referenda as a “sham” and warned the results would mimic steps Moscow took in Crimea when it reportedly falsified the 2014 election results in favor of Russia’s political goals.
Konstantin Ivashchenko (L), former CEO of the Azovmash plant and appointed pro-Russian mayor of Mariupol, visits a polling station as people vote in a referendum September 27, 2022 in Mariupol. (Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)
PUTIN EXPECTED TO COVER PARTS OF UKRAINE SINCE ‘Sham’ REFERENCES ENDED TODAY
The Kremlin has warned that should the “results” of the referenda show support for joining the Russian Federation, it will interpret any attack in the war-torn regions as an attack on Russia.
Early census results released by Russian news outlets on Tuesday reportedly showed that up to 98% of “voters” support Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would not recognize the “farce” and his troops would not stop until they liberated all of Ukraine, including Crimea, from Russian forces.
“Annexion is the kind of move that puts him alone against all of humanity,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Putin.
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Ukrainian soldiers sit on infantry fighting vehicles as they ride near Izyum in eastern Ukraine September 16, 2022 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)
“Russia’s acknowledgment of these sham referenda as supposedly normal, implementation of the so-called ‘Crimean scenario’ [are] another attempt to annex the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
Zelenskyy called for a “clear signal” from the international community to show that Russia’s attempts to seize Ukrainian land will not be recognised, saying tougher sanctions must be enforced.
Caitlin McFall is a reporter at Fox News Digital. You can reach her at [email protected] or @ctlnmcfall on Twitter.