The head of Ukraine’s Luhansk separatist region said on Sunday that it could hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia.
“I think that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the republic, during which the people will… express their opinion on joining the Russian Federation,” Leonid Pasechnik said as per Russian news agencies.
Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk regions since an insurgency erupted there in 2014 shortly after Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
Moscow recognised there independence on February 21 and then cited their call for military assistance to launch the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
In talks with Ukraine, Moscow has urged it to acknowledge Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Pasechnik’s statement could herald a shift in the Russian position.
Ukraine said such a referendum in occupied Ukrainian territory would have no legal basis and would face a strong response from the international community, deepening Russia’s global isolation.
“All fake referendums in the temporarily occupied territories are null and void and will have no legal validity,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement.
“Instead, Russia will facе an even stronger response from the international community, further deepening its global isolation.”
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Russian President Putin says what he casts as a “special military operation” was needed to defend Russia against the United States which he said was arming Ukraine and developing it into an “anti-Russia” with the aim of admitting it into the NATO military alliance.
Russian troops have also been besieging Mariupol as taking the strategic port city would give Moscow an unbroken control stretching from the Donbas to the Crimea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
Russia also says the operation was needed to defend Russian-speaking populations against persecution from Ukraine’s government which it says is a puppet controlled by Washington.
Ukraine says such claims are simply a pretext for occupation and that Moscow does not understand that Ukraine is a sovereign country.
After Russian forces in 2014 took control of Crimea, first annexed by Russia in 1783, a referendum on joining Russia was held. Voters chose overwhelmingly to join Russia. Ukraine said the referendum was illegal and that Crimea is part of Ukraine.
The West imposed sanctions on Russia over the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Moscow says the majority of the people of Crimea wanted to join Russia.
(With inputs from agencies)
