The voting process in referendums convened in the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk Y Lugansk and in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson Y Zaporizhiaoccupied by the Russian forces in the framework of the invasion unleashed on February 24, to determine the possible accession to Russia started early this Friday, despite the refusal of Ukraine and the international community to recognize the validity of the process.
The vote has started at 8:00 a.m. (7:00 a.m. in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands) and will last until 4:00 p.m., something that will also happen in the following days and until September 27, when the process will end. Russia has also opened electoral colleges in various cities so that refugees can go to vote.
The pro-Russian authorities in Kherson have indicated that they expect 750,000 people to turn out to vote, while in the census in Zaporizhia there are 500,000 people, according to the Russian news agency TASS. In both cases, the participants will have to answer a question: “Are you in favor of the region leaving Ukraine, creating an independent state and becoming part of Russia?”
In the case of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, whose independence was recognized by the Russian president, Vladimir Putindays before ordering the invasion of Ukraine, voters will have to decide whether they support “the entry of the republic into Russia as a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.”
Moscow will recognize the results
Putin himself stated Wednesday in a speech to the nation in which he announced a “partial mobilization” of the population for the war in Ukraine that Moscow would recognize the result of these referendums. “We will do everything possible to provide security conditions so that referendums are held and the population expresses its will,” he said. “We will support the decision on its future, which will be adopted by the majority of the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions,” said the Russian president, who also warned that Russia could use “all the means” in the event of a “threat to the territorial integrity” of Russia, including nuclear weapons.
In this line, the president of the Russian State Duma expressed himself this Friday, Vyacheslav Volodin, who has asked the population of these regions to “vote freely” and “fear nothing.” “Make a decision to be part of Russia. We will support you,” he pointed out in a message on his Telegram account in which he stressed that the residents of these areas of Ukraine “have the right to self-determination, contemplated in the Charter of United Nations“.
“The European Union has made another threat to our country in relation to the referendums. We are aware of our decisions and nothing scares us. The EU did not notice the genocide of the Donbass for eight years and did not think about their safety. supported the regime Kyiv, who fired daily at civilians. Elders, women and children died,” she denounced.
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For its part, the Parliament of Ukraine approved on Wednesday the declaration of inadmissibility of the referendums on accession to Russia proposed by the pro-Russian authorities in these regions. The pro-Russian authorities in Crimea already held a referendum on joining Russia in 2014, the result of which legitimized Putin to annex the peninsula, a move not recognized by the international community.
During the day on Thursday, the NATO He reaffirmed that he will not recognize the results of the votes, since “they lack legitimacy” and constitute a violation of the Charter of the United Nations. In this regard, the bloc released a statement in which it called on “all states” to reject these attempts at “territorial conquest” by Russia, insisting that the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions ” They are Ukraine.