The United States has information about Russia's preparation for the annexation of additional territories of Ukraine - in particular Donetsk and Luhansk and parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions - and warns that they will react to this move by the Russian Federation.
Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby announced this at a briefing on Tuesday, a correspondent of Yevropeiska Pravda online media reports.
"We see a significant body of evidence from intelligence and open sources that Russia is planning an attempt to annex additional Ukrainian territories. Russia is beginning to announce, so to speak, its 'rules and conditions' of annexation, as it did in 2014.
Russia has already placed illegitimate controlled persons in the territories of Ukraine it controls. And we know its next steps: first, these "leaders" will organize a staged referendum on joining Russia, then Russia will use these referendums in its attempt to annex new territories of Ukraine," he said.
According to him, the Russian government is currently considering a plan to annex parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Moscow has already started preparing for such a step: it introduced circulation of the ruble in the occupied territories, blocks access to the Internet, persecutes people with pro-Ukrainian views and establishes control over the media.
"The Kremlin has not announced the timing of these referendums, but their Gauleiter said that they will take place this year, probably together with regional elections in Russia on September 11," the White House representative noted, recalling how Russia at the beginning of the full-scale invasion said that in its plans did not include the occupation of Ukraine.
"If Russia does go ahead with its annexation plans, our response will be rapid and tough – and shared with our allies and partners. Russia will be subject to additional sanctions, making it even more of an outcast than it is now. We will never recognize any 'annexed' territories by Russia," Kirby emphasized.
He added that Ukraine will probably be able to recapture the territories temporarily occupied by Russia by military means.
It will be recalled that earlier in the United States they declared that despite what they say in the Kremlin, Russia is isolated from the world.
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