Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Monday that Russia will “consult” the population to determine the boundaries of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine.
Asked whether Russia annexed all or only part of the territory it occupied in these regions, Peskov replied, “We will continue to consult the population of these regions.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin formalized the annexation of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, as well as two other Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, at a ceremony in the Kremlin on Friday.
The Donetsk and Lugansk regions were fully annexed after Moscow recognized the sovereignty of pro-Russian separatist regimes in late February, shortly before the start of the Ukrainian offensive.
But the Kremlin said last week that the boundaries of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions need to be “clarified”.
The US-based research center ISW (War Research Institute) claims that Russia controls 72% of the Zaporizhzhia region.
Also, about 88% of Kherson and its eponymous capital are under Russian occupation.
Russia hastily held referendums in four Ukrainian regions, criticized by Ukraine and its Western allies as “nonsense”.
Also Monday, Russian authorities announced that Yuri Laiko, the military recruitment officer in the Khabarovsk region, had been dismissed after he mistakenly called thousands of people to fight in Ukraine.
“This will have no impact on the target set by the president,” Governor Mikhail Degtyaryov told Telegram. Said.
Khabarovsk is located in the far east of Russia.
“Within 10 days, several citizens received summons and joined military missions. We returned half of them to their homes because they did not meet the selection criteria to join the army,” the governor said.
source: Noticias
