Russian senator hints at possible annexation of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions
IRYNA BALACHUK - FRIDAY, 20 MAY 2022, 10:32
Andrey Klishas, chair of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation, has declared that residents of all Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian Federation, not just those who live in Donbas, have the right to decide whether to continue to stay with Russia.
Source: Klishas on Telegram
Quote from Klishas: "It’s not just citizens of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic who have the right to decide whether to continue to stay with Russia. So do residents of the Kherson region, Zaporizhzhia, all of the territories where denazification has taken place and people have gained the right to determine their future."
Reminder: On 19 May, Dmitry Peskov, the Russian President’s press secretary, said that nothing should be done with Ukraine’s occupied territories without the will of the people of those territories.
Background:
- In early May, Andrey Turchak, secretary general of Putin's United Russia party, visited Kherson and said "Russia is here forever".
- Later, the Russian-appointed so-called authorities of the Kherson Military-Civilian Administration announced that they would ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to incorporate Kherson Oblast into Russia.
- A Putin official [Dmitry Peskov] says the Kherson region should enter the Russian Federation "as legitimately as Crimea did".
On 16 May, the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration reported that the occupiers had been instructed to get the captured city of Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia Oblast ready for a "referendum".
