The Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans on Tuesday to begin voting this week to become integral parts of Russia. Coordinated and accelerated Kremlin-backed efforts to gobble up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war following Ukraine’s successes on the battlefield. Referendums scheduled to begin on Friday in the regions of Luhansk, Kherson and the partially Russian-controlled regions of Zaporizhia and Donetsk came after a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said the votes were needed and as Moscow loses ground in the invasion it launched almost seven months ago. , increasing pressure on the Kremlin for a tough response. Former President Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council under Putin, said the referendums folding the regions into Russia itself would make the redrawn borders “irreversible” and allow Moscow to use “any means’ to defend them. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced the vote as a fraud and tweeted that “Ukraine has every right to liberate its territories and will continue to liberate them no matter what Russia has to say.” The votes, in territory already controlled by Russia, are sure to go Moscow’s way but are unlikely to be recognized by Western governments that back Ukraine with military and other support that has helped its forces gain momentum on the battlefields in the east and south. In Donetsk, part of Ukraine’s greater Donbass region that has been gripped by rebel fighting since 2014 and which Putin has made a primary target of the invasion, separatist leader Denis Pushilin said the vote would “restore historical justice”. in the area of ”long suffering people”. “They have earned the right to be part of the great country they have always called home,” he said. In the partially Russian-held Zaporizhia, pro-Russian activist Vladimir Rogov said: “The sooner we become part of Russia, the sooner peace will come.” Pressure inside Russia for votes and from Moscow-backed leaders in Moscow-controlled Ukrainian regions has increased after a Ukrainian counter-offensive — boosted by Western-supplied weapons — has retaken large swaths of territory. Former Kremlin speechwriter and Russian political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said on Facebook that Moscow-backed separatists appeared “fearful that the Russians will abandon them” amid the Ukrainian offensive and pushed ahead with referendum plans to force the Kremlin’s hand . In another signal that Russia is digging in for a protracted and possibly escalating conflict, the Kremlin-controlled lower house of parliament voted on Tuesday to tighten laws against desertion, surrender and looting by Russian troops. Lawmakers also voted to introduce possible 10-year prison sentences for soldiers who refuse to fight. If approved, as expected, by the upper house and then signed by Putin, the legislation would strengthen the hands of commanders against declining morale among soldiers. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was no prospect of a diplomatic settlement. Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, told his channel on the messaging app that the separatist regions’ votes were important to protect their residents and would “completely change” Russia’s future trajectory. “Once they are held and the new territories come into Russia’s fold, a geopolitical transformation of the world will become irreversible,” Medvedev said. “A trespass on Russian territory is a crime that would justify any means of self-defense,” he said, adding that Russia would enshrine the new territories in its constitution so that no future Russian leader could hand them back. “That’s why they are so afraid of these referendums in Kyiv and in the West,” Medvedev said. “That’s why they should be kept.” Ukrainian analyst Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the independent Kyiv-based Penta Center think tank, said the Kremlin hoped the votes and the possibility of a military escalation would increase pressure from Western governments for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to open talks with Moscow. The move “reflects the weakness, not the strength, of the Kremlin, which is struggling to find levers to influence a situation that is increasingly out of its control,” he said. The recapture of territory, mainly in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, bolstered Ukraine’s arguments that its troops could inflict more crushing defeats on Russia with additional arms deliveries. More heavy weapons are on the way, with Slovenia pledging 28 tanks and Germany pledging four additional self-propelled howitzers. More aid is also expected from Britain, already one of Ukraine’s biggest military backers after British US Prime Minister Liz Truss is expected to pledge that in 2023, her government will “match or exceed” £2.3 billion (2 .7 billion dollars) in military aid given to Ukraine this year. The speed of the Ukrainian counterattack also led Russian forces to abandon armored vehicles and other weapons as they beat hasty retreats. Ukrainian forces are recycling captured weapons back into battle. A Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said abandoned Russian T-72 tanks are being used by Ukrainian forces seeking to push into Russian-held Luhansk. In the aftermath of the counterattack, Ukrainian officials found hundreds of graves near the once-occupied city of Izium. Yevhenii Yenin, a deputy minister at Ukraine’s interior ministry, told national television that officials found several bodies “with signs of violent death.” “These are broken ribs and broken heads, men with bound hands, broken jaws and severed genitalia,” he said. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s southern military command said its troops sank a Russian barge carrying troops and weapons across the Dnieper River near the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka. He gave no further details about the attack on the Russian-held Kherson region, which has been a major target in the Ukrainian counteroffensive. In other developments: — Ukraine’s presidential office says fresh shelling has killed three civilians and wounded 19 others in a 24-hour period. — Moscow has likely moved its Kilo-class submarines from their station on the Crimean peninsula in southern Russia over fears they could be hit by long-range Ukrainian fire, the British military said. — McDonald’s restaurants in Kyiv began serving again for the first time since the invasion, offering only delivery service at first, but marking a step back to the life Ukrainians knew before the war.
