Zaporizhzhia Oblast: Ukrainian collaborators with Russia talk about the possibility of acceding to Russia

Anastasiia Kalatur –  Wednesday, 25 May 2022, 06:00

Vladimir Rogov, a so-called "representative of the local administration" of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, claimed that Zaporizhzhia Oblast wants to be part of the Russian Federation.

Source: Ukrainian collaborator with Russia Vladimir Rogov, cited in the Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency RIA Novosti

Details: Rogov claimed that Zaporizhzhia Oblast will aim to accede to the Russian Federation "after it is entirely liberated from Ukrainian nationalists."

Quote: "There is only one future for Zaporizhzhia Oblast – it must be part of Russia, must become a full-fledged subject of the Russian Federation. We don’t need grey areas, we don’t need a Zaporizhzhia People’s Republic. We want to be part of Russia, just as we were for hundreds of years in the past."

Background: Part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast is currently occupied by Russia.

Vladimir Rogov was formerly an ally of Oleg Tsaryov [a Ukrainian businessman, politician and separatist leader in eastern Ukraine who has been wanted by Ukrainian police since June 2014 for promoting separatism and violence] and one of the organisers of anti-Maidan protests in Zaporizhzhia [anti-Maidan refers to demonstrations in Ukraine first directed against the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14 and later the new Ukrainian government]. As part of a prisoner exchange in September 2014 Rogov wound up in Russia, where he often appeared in local media as Head of the so-called Novorossia Committee on State Building and leader of the Slavyanskaya Gvardiya movement; he also raised funds for the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. In March 2022, he started calling himself a member of the so-called Zaporizhzhia military-civilian administration.

Earlier: Two weeks ago, the Russian-appointed authorities of the so-called Kherson military-civilian administration announced that they were to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to include Kherson Oblast in the Russian Federation.

The Kremlin has said that the annexation of the occupied Kherson Oblast should take place "legitimately, as it was with Crimea."