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KYIV, Ukraine , Sep 20 (AP) \u2014 Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans Tuesday to start voting this week to become integral parts of Russia. The concerted and quickening Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war against Ukrainian forces successfully battling to wrest back territory.<\/p>\n
The announcements of referendums starting Friday in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia regions came after a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said votes were needed, as Moscow loses ground in the war that began nearly seven months ago.<\/p>\n
Former President Dmitry Medvedev said folding regions into Russia itself would make redrawn frontiers \u201cirreversible\u201d and enable Moscow to use \u201cany means\u201d to defend them.<\/p>\n
The votes, in territory Russia already controls, are expected with near-certainty to go Moscow\u2019s way but are unlikely to be recognized by Western governments backing Ukraine with military and other support.<\/p>\n
Luhansk and Donetsk together form much of the Donbas region, which has been gripped by separatist fighting since 2014 and which Putin has set as a primary objective of the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n
In Donetsk, separatist leader Denis Pushilin said the \u201clong-suffering people of the Donbas have earned the right to be part of the great country that they always considered their motherland.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the vote will help \u201crestore historic justice that millions of the Russian people were waiting for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressure within Russia and from Moscow-backed leaders in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine for votes to pave their way to becoming Russian increased in the wake of a Ukrainian counteroffensive \u2014 bolstered by Western-supplied weaponry \u2014 that is recapturing large areas of previously Russian-occupied territory.<\/p>\n
In another signal that Russia is digging in for a protracted and possibly ramped-up conflict, the Kremlin-controlled lower of house of parliament voted Tuesday to toughen laws against desertion, surrender and looting by Russian soldiers. Lawmakers also voted to introduce possible 10-year prison terms for soldiers refusing to fight. If approved, as expected, by the upper house and then signed by Putin, the legislation would strengthen commanders\u2019 hands against failing morale reported among soldiers.<\/p>\n
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that there are no prospects for a diplomatic settlement. Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia\u2019s Security Council chaired by Putin, said on his messaging app channel that votes in separatist regions are important to protect their residents and \u201crestore historic justice\u201d and would \u201ccompletely change\u201d Russia\u2019s future trajectory.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter they are held and the new territories are taken into Russia\u2019s fold, a geopolitical transformation of the world will become irreversible,\u201d said Medvedev, who served as Russia\u2019s president from 2008-2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn encroachment on the territory of Russia is a crime that would warrant any means of self-defense,\u201d he said, adding that Russia would enshrine the new territories in its constitution so no future Russian leader could hand them back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why they fear those referendums so much in Kyiv and in the West,\u201d Medvedev said. \u201cThat is why they must be held.\u201d<\/p>\n
The recapturing of large areas of previously Russian-occupied territory, most notably in the northeastern Kharkiv region, has strengthened Ukraine\u2019s arguments that its troops could deliver more stinging defeats to Russia with additional armament deliveries.<\/p>\n
More heavy weaponry is on its way, with Slovenia this week promising 28 tanks and Germany pledging four additional self-propelled howitzers. More aid also is expected from Britain, already one of Ukraine\u2019s biggest military backers after the United States. British Prime Minister Liz Truss is expected to promise that in 2023, her government will \u201cmatch or exceed\u201d the 2.3 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) in military aid given to Ukraine this year.<\/p>\n
The swiftness of the Ukrainian counteroffensive also saw Russian forces abandon armored vehicles and other weapons as they beat hasty retreats. Ukrainian forces are recycling captured weaponry back into battle. A Washington-based think tank, The Institute for the Study of War, said Tuesday that abandoned Russian T-72 tanks are being used by Ukrainian forces seeking to push onward into Russian-occupied Luhansk.<\/p>\n
In the counteroffensive\u2019s wake, Ukrainian officials found hundreds of graves near the once-occupied city of Izium. Yevhenii Yenin, a deputy minister in Ukraine\u2019s Internal Affairs Ministry, told a national telecast that officials found many bodies \u201cwith signs of violent death.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are broken ribs and broken heads, men with bound hands, broken jaws and severed genitalia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian officials also have alleged Russian forces tortured people in occupied areas, including shocking them with radio telephones dating back to the Soviet era. Russia has repeatedly denied abusing or killing prisoners, though Ukrainian officials found mass graves around the city of Bucha after blunting a Russian offensive targeting the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the war.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian push continues in the south of the country. Ukraine\u2019s southern military command said early Tuesday its troops sank a Russian barge carrying troops and weapons across the Dnipro River near the Russian-occupied city of Nova Kakhovka. It offered no other details on the sinking of the barge in the Russian-occupied Kherson region, which has been a major target in the Ukrainian counteroffensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV, Ukraine , Sep 20 (AP) \u2014 Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans Tuesday to start voting this week to become integral parts of Russia. The concerted and quickening Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war against Ukrainian forces successfully battling to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-200932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}