A Ukrainian soldier walks near a burnt-out vehicle on the frontline facing Russian troops in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on September 23, 2022 (AFP/Anatolii Stepanov)
Joe Biden has assured that the United States and its allies will impose new economic sanctions “swift and severe on Russia” if it annexes territories in Ukraine, within the framework of “referendums” which continue on Saturday.
“Russia’s referendums are a sham, a false pretext to try to annex parts of Ukraine by force,” the American president denounced Friday evening.
Previously, in a joint statement, the G7 countries (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom) had called on “all countries to unequivocally reject these fictitious referendums”, “simulacra” which “have neither legal effect nor legitimacy”.
Friday evening, in his daily address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also denounced “pseudo-referendums”.
Without going so far as to denounce the polls, China, Moscow’s closest partner, nevertheless went there with its criticism, calling for respect for “the territorial integrity of all countries”.
Russia has begun to vote in its “referendums” to annex Ukrainian regions that it wholly or partly controls. Voting, which began at 05:00 GMT on Friday, will end on September 27 in the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk (east), and in areas under Russian occupation in the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia (south).
Rally and concert in favor of the annexation referendums in the regions of Ukraine under Russian control, in Saint Petersburg, on September 23, 2022 (AFP/Olga MALTSEVA)
Hundreds of polling stations were to be opened in the four territories, and others in Russia to allow displaced people to vote.
In Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities, the authorities organized demonstrations in support of the votes with great reinforcements of flags and slogans.
“These referendums are a step towards this peace,” said Viktor Suvorov, 40, present at the Moscow rally, a stone’s throw from Red Square.
In Ukraine, in Chevchenkové, the Ukrainian official Andriï Kanachevitch protested to AFP against “illegal” elections. “It’s nonsense,” he said.
– “Signs of torture” in Izioum –
On the side of the UN, a commission of inquiry has recognized that “war crimes have been committed in Ukraine”, referring in particular to Russian bombardments on civilian areas, executions, acts of torture, ill-treatment as well as sexual violence.
Ukraine: Russia holds annexation referendums (AFP/)
Ukraine has also announced that it has exhumed 447 bodies from a mass burial site in Izium, a town recaptured from the Russians in the northeast, including 30 with “signs of torture” such as bound hands, limbs broken or “amputated genitalia”.
On the diplomatic side, Iran has found itself in the crosshairs of the Ukrainian authorities, who blame it for its arms deliveries to Moscow and in particular drones, which killed one person in a Russian attack on the port of Odessa on Friday.
Criticizing “hostile” behavior, Kyiv decided to withdraw accreditation from the Iranian ambassador to Ukraine and to “significantly reduce” the staff of the Iranian embassy in Kyiv.
On the ground, Ukraine claimed Friday the capture of Yatskivka in the Donetsk region (east). She also says she advanced south of Bakhmout, a locality in the east, which the Russian army has been trying to take for months without success.
Investigators extricate a body wrapped in a plastic bag near Izium, eastern Ukraine, on September 23, 2022 (AFP/SERGEY BOBOK)
On the separatist side, the head of Donetsk Denis Pushilin spoke of an “extremely difficult” situation north of his city.
In the Lugansk region, another separatist official, Andrei Marochko, reported Ukrainian bombardments, noting that the forces of kyiv “want to do everything to derail the referendum”.
The hasty announcement of these elections was accompanied by that, Wednesday by Vladimir Putin, of the immediate mobilization of at least 300,000 reservists. The Russian president also threatened to use all of Russia’s arsenal, which includes nuclear weapons.
– Mobilization of Russian reservists –
This mobilization continued in Russia, the Kremlin seeking the parade with the advances of the Ukrainian army which, strong of the deliveries of Western weapons, claimed new territorial progress Friday.
A poster advertises the “referendum on entry into the Russian Federation” on the gate of the “Embassy” of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” in Moscow on September 23, 2022 (AFP/Alexander NEMENOV)
On this subject, Mr Zelensky called on all Ukrainians who find themselves in the territories occupied by the Russians to “go into hiding to escape Russian mobilization” and, if they cannot escape it, to “sabotage any activity of the enemy”.
If television broadcast almost no images of the mobilization, several videos on social networks showed men with closed faces getting on buses after kissing their loved ones, some in tears.
Reached by AFP, Konstantin, 29, said he received his summons at his parents’ home. “I’m still in shock,” he said. “I’m not going to hide but I’m not jumping for joy either”.
Others were given a summons after being arrested during demonstrations against the mobilization on Wednesday.
A destroyed Orthodox monastery in the recently liberated village of Dolina in the Donetsk region on September 22, 2022 (AFP/Anatolii Stepanov)
“I expected the usual (procedures): the arrest, the police station, the court. But being told: + Tomorrow you are going to war + (…) that was a surprise”, told AFP Mikhail Suetin, 29, who refused to sign the document.
The announcement of the mobilization also prompted many Russians to leave the country, causing an influx at the borders, without it being possible to quantify the extent of the phenomenon.
Finland has decided to take measures to “significantly” limit the entry of Russian citizens on its soil, while the Baltic countries and Poland have already been drastically curbing entry for weeks.
© 2022 AFP
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