(Kyiv) The last day of voting took place Tuesday in the regions of Ukraine controlled by Russia, during predetermined referendums which should serve as a pretext for their annexation by Moscow.
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The polls increase tension between the Kremlin and the West, with Russia warning it could use nuclear weapons to defend its own territory.
The formal annexation of captured territories in eastern Ukraine, possibly as early as Friday, sets the stage for a dangerous new phase in the seven-month war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that after the polls “the situation will change radically from the legal point of view, from the point of view of international law, with all the corresponding consequences for the protection of these areas and the guarantee of their safety.
Faced with recent humiliating battlefield setbacks for Kremlin forces in Ukraine, and increasingly cornered by the Kyiv counteroffensive, Russian President Vladimir Putin has since last week attempted to up the ante by speaking of Moscow’s nuclear option. Regional polls and the call-up of Russian military reserves are other strategies aimed at strengthening Moscow’s position.
Western allies remain firm with Ukraine. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was the latest high-ranking foreign official to visit Kyiv on Tuesday, saying Paris was determined “to support Ukraine, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity”.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by Mr Putin, spelled out the threat in the most blunt terms yet on Tuesday.
“Let’s imagine that Russia is forced to use the most powerful weapon against the Ukrainian regime which has committed a large-scale act of aggression, which is dangerous for the very existence of our state,” wrote Mr. Medvedev on his messaging app channel. I believe that NATO will avoid directly interfering in the conflict in this case. »
The US called the Kremlin’s nuclear talk a scare tactic.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, reacted to Mr Putin’s nuclear threats last week. He told NBC on Sunday that Russia would pay a high, albeit unspecified, price if Moscow followed through on its threats to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine still commands the world’s attention as it causes widespread shortages and rising prices not only of food but also of energy, inflation that hits the cost of living everywhere and global inequality growing. Talk of nuclear war only added to the concern.
Misery and hardship are often the legacy of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian areas now taken over by Kyiv forces. Some people have been without gas, electricity, running water or internet since March.
The war has caused an energy shortage in much of Western Europe, with German officials seeing the disruption of Russian supplies as a Kremlin power play to pressure Europe over its support for the Ukraine.
Germany’s economy ministry said on Tuesday that the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe reported a drop in pressure, just hours after a leak was reported in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. in the Baltic Sea off Denmark. Both pipelines were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Europe.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the problems were “very alarming” and would be investigated.
The referendum in Ukrainian regions controlled by Russia, the result of which should be a predetermined victory for Moscow, is dismissed as a sham by Ukraine and many other countries.
The five-day vote, in which residents are asked if they want their regions to become part of Russia, was anything but free or fair. Tens of thousands of residents had already fled the areas amid the war, and footage shared by those who remained showed armed Russian troops going door to door to pressure Ukrainians to vote.
With his back to the wall amid Ukrainian successes on the battlefield, Russian media are speculating that Mr Putin could follow through on last week’s partial mobilization order by declaring martial law and closing the country’s borders. country to all men of fighting age.
The call has in some ways backfired on Mr. Putin. It triggered a mass exodus of men from the country, fueling protests in many parts of Russia and sparking occasional acts of violence. On Monday, a gunman opened fire at an enlistment office in a Siberian town and seriously injured the local military recruiting chief. The shooting came after scattered arson attacks on recruiting offices.
In the latest move to stem the tide of men fleeing Russia to avoid mobilization, Russian officials have announced plans to set up a military recruiting office just on the border with Georgia, one of the main routes through the ‘Exodus.
Ukraine’s presidential office revealed that at least 11 civilians were killed and 18 others injured in the latest Russian bombardment.
A strike on the town of Pervomaiskyi in the northeastern region of Kharkiv killed eight people, including a 15-year-old boy, Ukrainian officials said.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said in televised comments that “the senseless shelling looks like an attempt to scare civilians”.
In the eastern region of Donetsk, the Russian barrage focused on the cities of Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Toretsk, killing three people and injuring 13 in 24 hours.
The region is one of four where the Moscow-based authorities are holding referendums on the integration of these regions into Russia.
The Russians also bombed the towns of Nikopol and Marhanets opposite the Russian nuclear power plant of Zaporizhya on the other side of the Dnieper, Ukrainian authorities announced. In Kryvyi Rih, the birthplace of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a Russian cruise missile hit the local airport, damaging its runway and knocking it out of service.
China says the UN Security Council should help negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the country was ready to work with the rest of the international community to defuse the fighting.
China has tacitly supported Russia’s claim that it was provoked into the conflict by the United States and NATO, but has not recognized Russia’s territorial claims in Ukraine.