It is the 214th day of war in Ukraine. Seven months of conflict, third day of “referendum”. In the four Russian-controlled Ukrainian regions, voting will be held until Tuesday about joining Moscow. According to Kiev, Russian soldiers go door to door to force people to vote. For US President Biden, referendums are a “farce”. The G7: “We will never recognize the vote”. Turkey, which did not recognize the results of the fake referendum in Crimea in 2014, has the same clear position regarding those that Russia is conducting in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
In Russia over 700 arrests for protests, Putin exacerbates the penalties of those who refuse to fight. Desertion or failure to join the military service is punished with imprisonment from five to ten years. Those who voluntarily surrender to the enemy will face a prison sentence of up to ten years.
A line of cars on the border between Russia and Georgia is now 10 kilometers long: in the cars men of conscription age fleeing the partial mobilization decided by the Moscow government. Four of the five European countries bordering the Federation do not allow Russians with a tourist visa to enter, however the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said he was in favor of keeping the doors open to fleeing Russians.
Meanwhile, expectations are growing for Putin’s annual message to Parliament.
The Kremlin has meanwhile announced the replacement of its chief logistics officer: General Bulgakov has been replaced by General Mikhail Mizintsev, nicknamed “the butcher of Mariupol” for the devastating attacks on the Ukrainian city and the brutal behavior against the civilian population during the siege.
The Russian Foreign Minister at the UN attacks Brussels: «Europe is under the control of the USA, the EU is becoming a dictatorial entity. The United States wants the world to be their backyard and now they are part of the Ukrainian conflict ”. And again on the Italian elections: «From von der Leyen unprecedented threats». Warning from the representative for EU foreign policy Borrel: “The nuclear threat is serious”. And Zelensky urges China: “It has an ambiguous position, too bad”.
The point – Margelletti: the Kremlin is ready for the Third World War
The story – Kida and the heroes of Masada: we win or Europe dies
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Updates hour after hour
00.10 – Media: Putin plans to forcibly enlist thousands of people from South Ossetia and Abkhazia
The Kremlin is considering the possibility of mobilizing not only the Russians, but also the citizens of the self-proclaimed republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. A source close to the presidential administration told the independent media Meduza. According to the interlocutor, several thousand people can be forcibly enlisted from the two regions that separated from Georgia after the blitzkrieg with Russia in 2008 and recognized only by Moscow and a few other countries in the world. The administrations of these republics are, in fact, controlled by the Kremlin. In 2022, the president of South Ossetia had announced “legal steps” to “unify” with Russia.
00.01 – Kiev asks for a meeting of the UN Security Council on Russian referendums
Ukraine has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on referendums for the annexation of the territories occupied by the Moscow army to Russia, as reported Kiev Independent. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said Ukraine “requested an urgent meeting” of the UN Security Council on “Russia’s false referendums” in the occupied areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. “Russia must be held accountable for its further attempts to change Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders in violation of the UN Charter,” Nikolenko said.
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