The United States warned that Russia is preparing to annex the eastern provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk, in the Ukrainian Donbass mining basin, with a Russian-speaking population that has been maintaining an armed confrontation with the kyiv government and the main reason for Moscow to justify the military invasion of Ukraine, close to serving 70 days.
“Russia will try to annex the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ and the ‘Lugansk People’s Republic,'” The US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Michael Carpenter, declared Monday night in Washington.
Pro-Russian separatists in the two regions declared independence in 2014. Moscow recognized them shortly before launching this war, but has not formally incorporated them into its territory as it did with the Crimean peninsula eight years ago.
In 2014 and 2015 there were two attempts to pacify the Donbass region with the signing of two peace agreements in the capital of Belarus, Minsk, and the participation of the two countries in conflict plus France and Germany.
However, Ukraine did not fulfill its own commitment, which was to give some regional autonomy to the two provinces, Lugansk and Donetsk, and allow the teaching of the Russian language, and began an armed conflict with the pro-Russian militias armed by Moscow based in that region, which according to UN figures left at least 14,000 dead in eight years.
Carpenter stated that to meet its objective, Russia would hold referendums (which the West will not recognize) in mid-May in the two provinces and which has similar plans for Kherson, a city in the south near Odessa where Moscow strengthened its control as of March 3 last and imposed its currency, the ruble, reported the AFP news agency.
Carpenter assured that “this information is very credible” and warned that the international community, as happened with Crimea, will not recognize any change in the Ukrainian borders.
“These mock referendums, orchestrated votes, will not be considered legitimate, and neither will any attempt to annex other Ukrainian territories,” he added.
