After Russia’s foreign minister stated that territories staging sharply contested referendums would get complete security in the event that Moscow seized those regions, the United States issued a warning on Sunday that using nuclear weapons in Ukraine would have “catastrophic repercussions.”
On Sunday, voting continued for a third day in four eastern Ukrainian districts that are seeking to acquire land that Russia has seized forcibly. Within a few days, the Russian parliament might take action to formally annex the territory.
Moscow might depict attempts to recover Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia as attacks on Russia itself, sending a message to Kyiv and its Western backers.
National Security Advisor for the United States Jake Sullivan stated on Sunday that should Russia deploy nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the United States will retaliate and that it has made Moscow aware of the “catastrophic repercussions” that would follow.
“Russia will suffer terrible repercussions if it breaches this boundary. America would react swiftly, Sullivan said NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “a television show.
The most recent American warning came in response to President Vladimir Putin’s Wednesday barely disguised nuclear threat, in which he stated that Russia will use all means necessary to defend its borders.
After repeating Moscow’s fabrications used to justify the invasion at the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Saturday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the point more explicitly during a press conference. He claimed that the elected government in Kyiv had been illegally installed and was full of neo-Nazis.
When asked if there would be justification for Russia to use nuclear weapons to defend annexations, Lavrov said that all of Russian territory, including any that could one day be “further entrenched” in the Russian constitution, “is under the complete protection of the state.”
The referendums have been rejected by Ukraine and its supporters as a ruse orchestrated by Moscow to justify escalating the conflict and launching a mobilization effort in response to recent fighting defeats.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Liz Truss urged Britain and its allies not to take Putin’s threats seriously since he had made a strategic error by failing to foresee the intensity of the response from the West.
“We shouldn’t be paying attention to his empty threats and saber-rattling. Instead, we must keep imposing sanctions on Russia and providing assistance for the Ukrainian people “In a Sunday interview with CNN, Truss said.
Unnamed sources told Russian news organizations that the Russian parliament might start discussing proposals to include the additional areas as early as Thursday. Putin could address the legislature on Friday, according to state-run RIA Novosti.
The referendums, hurriedly planned after Ukraine retook land in a counteroffensive this month, according to Russia, allow residents of those districts to voice their opinions.
About 15% of Ukraine, or an area roughly the size of Portugal, is controlled by Russian soldiers in the four areas. It would enlarge Crimea, which Russia says it annexed in 2014 and is almost the size of Belgium.
Each of the regions still has certain areas under the control of Ukrainian forces, including about 40% of Donetsk and the provincial capital of Zaporizhzhia. Along the whole front, fierce battle persisted, notably in Kherson and northern Donetsk.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, who maintains that his country will retake all of its lost territory, declared on Sunday that some of the confrontations had “good effects” for Kyiv. “This is our Kharkiv region, this is the Donetsk region. This includes the Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia areas “In his nightly video message, Zelenskyy remarked.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces claimed that in the previous 24 hours, Russia had attacked targets in Ukraine with four missiles, seven airstrikes, and 24 instances of shelling, hitting dozens of towns, including those in and around the Donetsk and Kherson regions.
Putin gave the first military call-up in Russia since World War Two on Wednesday. The action led to demonstrations all throughout Russia and forced many men of military age to leave.
On Sunday, two of Russia’s most senior MPs responded to a number of criticisms of the mobilization by demanding local officials to immediately end “excesses” that were inflaming the populace.
According to the unbiased monitoring organization OVD-Info, more than 2,000 individuals have been jailed across Russia for participating in anti-draft demonstrations. The protests are among the first indications of unhappiness since the war started in Russia, where it is illegal to criticize the battle.
Police and protestors battled in the Dagestan area of southern Russia, which has a large Muslim population. At least 100 people were jailed as a result.
In his video message, Zelenskyy addressed the demonstrations. Keep resisting, he urged, “all those who can be conscripted by this criminal Russian mobilization, so that your children will not be transported to their deaths.” Because, as a parent, I say, “We will not let you go away alive if you come to take away the lives of our children.”
