Occupied Ukraine ‘will ask Putin to annex them’

Kremlin officials in occupied Ukraine said they would ask President Vladimir Putin to include them in Russia.

A day earlier, authorities claimed that residents overwhelmingly supported annexation in a referendum that is widely considered illegal.

The scheduled outcome sets the stage for a dangerous new phase in Russia’s seven-month-long war, with Moscow officials threatening to throw more troops into the fight and possibly use nuclear weapons.

On Sept. 23, a referendum began asking residents if they wished to incorporate four occupied regions of southern and eastern Ukraine into Russia, often with armed officials going door-to-door to collect votes.

Pro-Moscow officials in the eastern Luhansk region and the partially occupied southern Zaporozhye region said they would file an annexation request on Wednesday.

The Russian-backed government of the neighbouring occupied Kherson region said it would make such a request to Putin “in the coming days”.

“Any annexation in the modern world is a crime against all countries that consider their borders inviolable as vital to them,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech to the UN Security Council via video link on Tuesday.

Separatist officials in the Donetsk region, much of which remains under Ukrainian control, are expected to follow suit.

According to Russian election officials, 93 percent of the votes in Zaporozhye region supported annexation, 87 percent in Kherson region, 98 percent in Luhansk region and 99 percent in Donetsk.

Kyiv and its Western allies believe the votes are bogus. Zelensky said Russia’s attempt to annex Ukrainian territory meant “nothing to say to the Russian president”.

As the Kremlin paved the way for annexation of occupied lands, its troops continued to shell the rest of the country.

Authorities in the southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol said it was hit by Russian rockets and artillery overnight.

Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said the city was separated from the Russian occupation zone, including the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, across the Dnieper River and saw 10 high-rise buildings and private buildings as well as a school, power lines and other areas.

Mr. Reznichenko said there were no immediate casualties in the attack.

In the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which is partly occupied by Moscow, Russian fire has killed five people and killed 10 others in the past 24 hours, according to Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. people are injured.