Moscow may announce one or more “illegal” referendums in occupied Ukraine from this week, in order to legitimize an annexation of Ukrainian territories. White House spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.
“According to information available to us, Russia continues to organize false referenda in Kherson, Zaporizhia, the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and in Kharkiv,” said Kirby, a spokesman for national security issues.
“The Russian leadership has ordered the preparation of those referendums. In fact, we expect a Russian announcement about one or more rigged elections by the end of the week,” the spokesperson said. “The US and the international community have been very clear: any attempt to control a sovereign territory of Ukraine will be considered illegal.”
Manipulating results
The US expects Russia to manipulate the results of the referendums to make it appear that the Ukrainian people want to join Russia. “That’s just wrong,” Kirby said. He referred to several polls in recent months of the Ukrainian population in Kiev-controlled areas, which showed that more than 90 percent of Ukrainians do not want to belong to Russia.
President Joe Biden, who announced a new tranche of military aid worth $3 billion on Wednesday, will have a telephone interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, it is said.
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