FORCED TO VOTE IN SHAM POLLS Armed thugs hold referendums on joining Russia
made far more sense militarily to drop back.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast was successful as troops made light work of a weak Russian frontline, sources noted.
One said the latest “Ukrainian successes are certainly politically significant”.
Fiction
And they added:
“We have not seen anything to suggest the maximalist plan to occupy the whole of Ukraine has changed. We thought it was an unviable plan before the invasion. Now, it’s fanciful.”
An official also said that Russia has “effectively exhausted the pool of willing volunteers” to fight and from the reaction of the Russian people this “fiction of a special operation is looking very threadbare”.
RUSSIA launched sham referendums yesterday across four occupied Ukrainian regions as part of a plot to stop Kyiv’s counter-attack.
Locals in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are being threatened if they refuse to take part in the ballot to join the Russian Federation.
The polls have raised the spectre of nuclear strikes and further isolated Moscow on the world stage.
Once Russia can announce the occupied regions as part of its territory, Moscow can claim Kyiv’s counter-offensive is an attack on the Federation.
Strikes
And in the eyes of the Kremlin, even nuclear strikes would be a justifiable escalation. President Vladimir Putin this week warned Russia would “use all the means at our disposal” to protect itself. He added: “This is not a bluff.”
Voting in the four provinces, which make up about 15 per cent of Ukraine, runs until Tuesday.
Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk, said in the town of Starobilsk Russian authorities banned the population from leaving the city until Tuesday. Armed groups of militia were sent to coerce people to get out to vote.
Yuriy Sobolevsky, the displaced deputy chairman of Kherson region council, said: “The best thing for the people of Kherson would be not to open their doors.” In Zaporizhzhia, residents reported being made to vote after armed soldiers arrived at their homes.
The referendums have been condemned by Ukraine and the West as illegitimate and choreographed.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the outcomes would have no bearing as they do not conform with Ukraine law.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the UN Security Council that Putin’s forces had already started to rig the “sham referenda” by deporting Ukrainians, bussing in Russian nationals for voting purposes and using torture, adding: “Russia’s effort to annex more Ukrainian territory is another dangerous escalation.” ‘DANGEROUS’: Top US diplomat Blinken