The Armed Forces of Ukraine affirmed this Wednesday that Russia began preparations to organize a referendum in the Kherson region, taken by the Russians on the 2nd of this month, to declare it an independent republic, and the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, anticipated “possible new Russian attacks”.
“In order to control the temporarily occupied territories of southern Ukraine, the enemy is trying to create military and civilian administrations and has started preparations for a referendum on a quasi-state entity in the Kherson region, the so-called Kherson People’s Republic.”the Armed Forces said in their evening report.
Kherson is located in the south of Ukraine, has access to the Black Sea and before the war about 280,000 people lived there.
In addition, they specified that the Russian troops did not have “active actions” in the north.
“In the near future, the fire against the Ukrainian units is expected to intensify to ensure the movement of their troops, with the additional task of blockading the city of Chernigov,” they announced.
On the other hand, the city of Kharkov, in northeastern Ukraine, continued to be bombed, according to the Europa Press news agency.
Russian troops “carried out movement of artillery units” in the city of Izium, the Ukrainian armed forces said.
In the Donetsk region, “the main efforts continued to focus on taking control of the settlements of Popasna, Rubizhne, as well as the capture of the city of Mariupol”, they added.
In addition, they indicated that the Russian troops were “unsuccessful” in the assault operations in the areas of Popasna, Rubizhne, Novobahmutivka, Marinka and Zolota Niva.
“Units of the Defense Forces restored control over the settlements of Orlove, Zagradivka and Kochubeyevka,” they said in the report, in which they also provided information on “fallen” senior commanders of the Russian Armed Forces.
For its part, Zelenski asserted that there was an accumulation of Russian troops for possible new attacks in the Donbass region and described as “difficult” the day of contacts with partners and allies.
In this way, the Ukrainian president said that he did not believe “in anyone” and did not trust “any beautiful verbal construction“, since there was a “real situation on the battlefield”.
He also recalled that the reduction of military operations announced by Russia in kyiv and Chernigov “is not a withdrawal”, but rather “the consequences of exile”.
“Today was a very active diplomatic day for me, a difficult one; the priorities are known, there are three of them: weapons for Ukraine, new sanctions against Russia and financial support for our state,” he said, also pointing out that “liberty should not be worse armed than tyranny.”
In this way, he recalled the conversations he had with the president of the United States, Joe Biden, as well as the speech he gave before the Norwegian Parliament and the contacts with the president of Egypt, Abdel Fatah al Sisi, and the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates. States, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed.
“I expect concrete results in the coming days from our representatives in Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa,” he said, according to a statement from the Ukrainian Presidency.
