The electoral commission of Russia announced Tuesday that the “yes” prevailed in the “referendums” of annexation, according to preliminary results relating to the polling stations in Russian territory, a vote strongly decried by the international community.
The commission claimed that the “yes” vote won between 97% and 98% of the votes after counting 20% to 27% of the votes in the polling stations in Russia, while counting began in the Ukrainian regions under control of Moscow, reported the Ria Novosti, TASS and Interfax agencies.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians came to Russia to escape the fighting in Ukraine, and the electoral commission opened polling stations for this diaspora on Russian territory.
Speaking to the Russian press, the head of the occupation administration of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, already claimed victory during this vote organized in an emergency over five days, despite the bombardments and in the presence of the Russian armed forces.
“It is already clear that the overwhelming majority of people supported leaving Ukraine and uniting with Russia,” he said of the area under his control.
In Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014 by Russia, polling stations were open for war refugees from the Donetsk region (east), partially controlled by Moscow and its separatist allies.
“With my voice I want to try to make my small contribution so that the war stops,” Galina Korsakova, 63, told AFP, “I really want to go home. »
The results “will not change anything” for Kyiv
The results of these votes “will not change anything” in kyiv’s actions against the Russian army, said Tuesday the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba.
“It will not change anything in our policy, our diplomacy and our actions in the military field,” Kouleba said during a press conference in kyiv with his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna.
According to the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, “by its decisions, Russia demonstrates that it is not seeking peace”, while negotiations between kyiv and Moscow have been at a standstill for several months.
“Russia does not want negotiations, stop playing this game”, he again launched to the address of the countries which say they want to organize talks between the two countries, like Turkey.
The Caesar problem solved
On the subject of French arms deliveries to kyiv, Mr. Kouleba indicated, alongside Ms. Colonna, that a “new step” had been “taken” on Tuesday “in the resolution of the problem of the transfer of new Caesars to Ukraine”. .
The Ukrainian minister, however, did not specify what logistical difficulties he was talking about, nor whether France was going to supply new Caesars, these French guns mounted on trucks with a range of 40 kilometers which the Ukrainians have been using for several months against the Russians. .
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs for her part underlined that France would be at kyiv’s side “until Ukraine recovers its full sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Ms Colonna mentioned an “envelope of more than two billion euros” provided by Paris to kyiv in recent months, for “political and diplomatic, humanitarian and reconstruction action and the fight against impunity” for the crimes attributed to Russia.
The French minister finally warned Russia against “sanctions” if it were to officially annex the four Ukrainian regions under its control in the coming days.
These measures will “most certainly be individual, to target those responsible for these illegal operations” and “will no doubt affect other sectors which were not yet under sanctions”, she declared to the press.