Ukraine urged the EU, NATO and the G7 to immediately significantly increase pressure on russia, including new tough sanctions. The state also called for an increase in military support for Ukraine, in particular, to provide tanks, combat aircraft, armored vehicles, long-range artillery, air and missile defence, the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on pseudo-referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk and Donetsk Regions reads.
“Forcing people in these territories to fill out some papers at the barrel of a gun is yet another russian crime in the course of its aggression against Ukraine. Such actions severely violate the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, as well as norms of international law and russia's international obligations. This performance has nothing to do with expression of will and does not have any implications for Ukraine’s administrative-territorial system and internationally recognized borders. Ukraine and the international community condemn such actions of russia and consider them null and worthless,” the Foreign Ministry emphasized.
All citizens of Ukraine who took part in the organization of these acts together with the russian occupiers will bear responsibility under the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The competent authorities of Ukraine are already taking measures to track them down and bring them to justice.
“The Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson Regions, like the Ukrainian Crimea, remain the sovereign territories of Ukraine. Ukraine has every right to restore its territorial integrity by military and diplomatic means, and will continue to liberate the temporarily occupied territories. Ukraine will never agree to any russian ultimatums. Moscow's attempts to create new separation lines or weaken international support for Ukraine are doomed to fail,” the Ministry added.
Ukraine believes that the sham referendums demonstrate that all russia's signals of readiness for negotiations are just an operation to cover up the armed aggression and attempts to hold on to the temporarily occupied territories.