Joining Russia?
Luhansk separatists plan referendum
03/27/2022, 1:20 p.m
Referendums could be useful as part of Putin’s plan to separate Luhansk and Donetsk from Ukraine. That was also the case in 2014 in the case of Crimea, which is still under dispute. The leader of the Luhansk separatists is now hinting at such a vote “in the near future”.
The pro-Russian separatists in the contested Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine want to have the region’s accession to Russia voted on, thereby increasing the pressure on Kyiv. “I think that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the People’s Republic, through which the people will exercise their absolute constitutional right and express their opinion on joining the Russian Federation.” This is what the Luhansk separatist leader Leonid Pasechnik said, according to the state agency TASS.
Against protests from Ukraine and the West, Russia recognized the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as states in February. On February 24, at the request of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the order for a “military operation” to protect them from the Ukrainian army. The West imposed unprecedented sanctions over Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
A possible accession of Luhansk to Russia is likely to further escalate the situation. According to information that cannot be independently verified, the Russian military had announced that more than 90 percent of the region had been wrested from Ukrainian control.
There was also an internationally unrecognized referendum in spring 2014 on the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. After that, Russia accepted Crimea into its territory against protests from the West. In the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, Russia is demanding, among other things, that Kyiv recognize the annexation of Crimea and the secession of Luhansk and Donetsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refuses to give up areas of the country.