The self-proclaimed Russian-backed People’s Republic of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine is considering an early referendum on accession to Russia. “I think in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the republic,” separatist leader Leonid Pasechnik said on Sunday. Such a referendum would be null and void, Kiev was immediately told. Moscow recently announced that it controls 93% of the Luhansk region.
“People will exercise their ultimate constitutional right and express their views on joining the Russian Federation,” Passechnik said, according to local media. Just before invading Ukraine in February, Russia recognized the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, in Ukraine’s eastern breakaway region, as independent. The referendum plans recall Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula into the Black Sea in 2014.
The Ukrainian government does not want to recognize a possible referendum in the country’s occupied territories on joining Russia. “All false referendums in the temporarily occupied territories are null and void,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko told Reuters on Sunday. “Instead, Russia will face an even stronger response from the international community, which will further deepen its global isolation.”
Ukrainians fear division
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Sunday that Russia had continued its “large-scale armed aggression”. However, Ukrainian forces repelled seven attacks in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. They destroyed several tanks and armored vehicles. Information about the fighting in Ukraine cannot be independently verified.
The Russian Defense Ministry recently announced that the army controls 93% of Luhansk district and 54% of the partly separatist Donetsk district in eastern Ukraine. “The main objective of the first phase of the operation has been achieved,” said Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian high command. Ukrainian forces have been weakened to such an extent that the focus may now be on liberating the Donbass region.
According to the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Russia wants to split Ukraine in two. According to secret service chief Kyrylo Budanov, Russia wants to create a government-controlled region in Moscow after it failed to take over the entire country. “Actually, this is an attempt to create a North Korea and a South Korea in Ukraine,” he explained. Ukraine will soon start a guerrilla war in the territories occupied by Russia.
Russia recognized territories
A possible official accession of Luhansk to Russia is likely to further aggravate the situation in Ukraine. Against protests from Ukraine and the West, Russia recognized the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as states in February.
On February 24, at the request of the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a “military operation” to protect them from the Ukrainian army. The West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
There was an internationally unrecognized referendum in Crimea in the spring of 2014. After that, Russia accepted Crimea on its territory against Western protests. In negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, Russia is demanding, among other things, that Kiev recognize the annexation of Crimea and the secession of Luhansk and Donetsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refuses to give up areas of the country. (apa / dpa / Reuters)