Borders of annexed Ukrainian territories depend on "will of local population" – Kremlin

Monday, 3 October 2022, 12:53

Dmitry Peskov, Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, said that the borders of occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts have not yet been defined and "will depend on the will of the population"; however, there will be no new sham referendums there.

Source: Kremlin-aligned news outlet TASS 

Details: Peskov said that Russia "will continue to consult with the local population" regarding the borders of occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. At the same time, Peskov stated that no new sham referendums are going to be conducted on those territories.

Previously: On 30 September, Peskov could not answer a question about which borders of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts would be recognised; however, he said that the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts are those of 2014. 

Background: 

  • On 27 September, the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation announced the first results of the sham referendums on the occupied territories of Ukraine. The vast majority of people supposedly voted for the accession of the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
  • The High Representative of the EU for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, condemned the holding of illegal sham referendums in the occupied territories of Ukraine and the falsification of their results.
  • President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that if Russia used the sham referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine as pretexts for annexing those territories, this would foreclose all possibility of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.

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