Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky slams ‘collaborators’ urging Russia to annex Kherson
- The Kremlin says it is up to residents living in the occupied region to decide if they want to join Russia, but Zelensky warns against ‘pseudo-referendums’
- Such a vote – dismissed by the West and Ukraine as illegitimate – was held by Moscow in 2014, a month it invaded Crimea
The Russian-occupied region of Kherson in Ukraine plans to ask President Vladimir Putin to incorporate it into Russia by the end of 2022, Russia’s Tass news agency reported on Wednesday, quoting the military-civilian administration there.
Kherson is the first region set to be annexed since Moscow began its military campaign in February saying it needed to disarm Ukraine and protect its Russian-speakers from “fascists”. That rationale has been dismissed by Ukraine and the West as a baseless pretext for an imperialist war of aggression.
The Kremlin said it was up to residents living in the region to decide whether they wanted to join Russia.
But Hennadiy Lahuta, the ousted Ukrainian governor of the Kherson region, told reporters in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro that the population wanted only “a speedy liberation and return to the bosom of their homeland, their mother – Ukraine”.
Russia said in April it had gained full control of the region, which has seen sporadic anti-Russian protests.
Kherson, home to a port city of the same name, provides part of the land link between the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, and Russian-backed separatist areas in eastern Ukraine.
