Recommends citizens to “save their lives” and avoid being “recruited”
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has not glossed over Russia’s strategy of calling referendums in the occupied regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson in order to annex them and legitimize a tougher response to the attacks in Kiev. In a video released late Friday, right at the end of the first day of the talks, Zelensky urged civilians unable to flee to sabotage Russian forces from within.
His first recommendation for Ukrainians in these areas is to “save their lives”, avoid being “recruited” by the Russians and escape as soon as possible to the area controlled by Kiev. But he also made a request to those who failed to flee and end up in the Russian army: «Sabotage every activity of the enemy, hinder every Russian operation, give all important information about the occupiers; their bases, headquarters or ammunition depots.
In the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – the first two fully occupied and the other two only partially – illegal consultations are taking place until Tuesday without observers or international support. Kiev denounces that the population is being forced to participate, even bringing armed soldiers from house to house. Moscow’s aim in annexing these territories is to provide a more vigorous military response under its legislation to the counter-offensive that has caused it losses since the beginning of September.
On the diplomatic front, Kiev decided to withdraw the recognition of the Iranian ambassador because this country supplies weapons to the Russian forces occupying Ukraine. Authorities denounced an attack by the Russians with Iranian drones in Odessa on Friday, in which a woman died, according to official sources. Tehran’s government deplored Ukraine’s decision and said it “must refrain from being influenced by third parties,” a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Source: La Verdad
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