Putin to proclaim annexation of Ukraine territory within days

Moscow was poised on Wednesday to annex a banner from Ukraine, releasing what it called vote records showing support in four partially occupied provinces to join Russia, after what Kiev and the West denounced as referendums. illegal scams held at gunpoint.

In Moscow’s Red Square, a rostrum with giant video screens was set up, with billboards proclaiming “Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson – Russia!”.

President Vladimir Putin could proclaim annexation in a speech within days, just over a week since he endorsed referendums, ordered a military mobilization and threatened to defend Russia with nuclear weapons if necessary.

The Russian-based administrations of the four Ukrainian provinces formally asked Putin to merge them into Russia, which Russian officials suggested was a formality.

“The results are clear. Welcome home to Russia!” Dmitry Medvedev, a former president who serves as vice president of the Russian Security Council, said on Telegram after the results were released.

Russian-backed officials claim to have held the referendums over five days in territory that represents about 15% of Ukraine.

Residents who have fled to Ukrainian territory in recent days said people were forced to mark ballots in the street by street workers at gunpoint. Footage filmed during the exercise showed officials stationed in Russia carrying urns from house to house with gunmen in tow.

Russia says the vote was voluntary and had high turnout.

“This farce in the Occupied Territories cannot even be called an imitation of a referendum,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on video overnight.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, told Reuters that Ukrainians who helped organize the exercise would face treason charges and at least five years in prison. Ukrainians who were forced to vote would not be punished.

Denis Pushilin, the Russian leader based in Donetsk, one of two Ukrainian regions that Moscow had already proclaimed independent states, said he was on his way to Moscow to complete the legal process of joining Russia.

“We are now moving into a new stage of military action,” he said, amid speculation that Putin may change the status of what he has so far called a “special military operation” to a counter-terrorist operation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia must keep fighting until it takes control of Donetsk. About 40% of the province is still under Ukrainian control and the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the war.

The Russian annexation plan picked up pace as the gas leak bubbled up into the Baltic Sea for a second day after suspected explosions ripped through Russian undersea pipelines on Tuesday.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was once the main route for Russian gas to Germany, was once closed but now cannot be reopened easily. NATO and the European Union warned of the need to protect critical infrastructure from what they called “sabotage”, although officials did not say who they blamed.

The Kremlin said any theory that could point the finger at Russia for blowing up its own pipelines would be “stupid”.

The United States is preparing a new round of sanctions to punish Russia for annexation and a $1.1 billion arms package for Ukraine to be announced soon, US officials said.

The head of the Russian parliament’s upper house said the chamber could approve the regions’ membership from 4 October. The annexation is part of a massive escalation strategy announced by Putin last week, along with the swift call-up of hundreds of thousands of Russian men to fight and a renewed warning about nuclear weapons, which he said was “no bluff”.

His action followed a stunning setback at the front, as Russian forces hastily abandoned a territory the size of Cyprus in a matter of days.

Russian officials said any attack on the annexed territory would be an attack on Russia itself.

Russia’s planned annexation of Ukrainian territory has been rejected globally, with even traditional Moscow allies such as Serbia and Kazakhstan saying they will not recognize it.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has offered his services as a mediator, told Zelensky by phone that what he called “unilateral” referendums would make it harder for moribund diplomatic efforts to revive.

Exodus

In the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainians who managed to flee Russian-occupied territory through the last front-line checkpoint said they had not seen a real vote.

“It is funny. No one voted, but the results came in,” laughed Lyubomir Boyko, 43, originally from Golo Pristan, a village in Russian-occupied Kherson province, as he waited with his family on Wednesday outside an aid office for the UN at a refugee reception center.

“They can advertise whatever they want. No one voted in the referendum, except for a few people who switched sides. They went from house to house, but no one came out,” Boyko said.

Residents said many are fleeing for fear that Moscow will immediately start pressuring men to fight in its forces once it declares the territory to be Russia. For now, Russian authorities at the checkpoint were letting some people out.

“The line of vehicles was so long you couldn’t see the end of it,” said Andriy, 37, a farm worker from Beryslav, Kherson province, who declined to give his last name, describing the checkpoint.

Entire villages were emptied, he said, standing beside the yellow, mud-spattered minibus in which he arrived with his wife, two children and parents.

“Seventy percent of people are leaving because of the referendum. There was no electricity, gas and work and suddenly you get the referendum. It’s complete nonsense. I don’t know a single person among those I know who voted.”