Russia formalizes accession of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia in the face of Western rejection as Pentagon predicts long war and decides to double shipment of arsenals to Kiev until 2025
Everything is ready in Moscow to declare tomorrow the annexation of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya to Russia. President Vladimir Putin will sign the accession decrees at 3 p.m. (2 p.m. in Spain) in the presence of members of his cabinet, parliament and the pro-Russian authorities of these four Ukrainian regions. The leaders are traveling to the Russian capital today with the results of the citizens’ consultations favoring the annexation almost one hundred percent, yes, under suspicion of multiple irregularities.
Presidency spokesman Dmitri Peskov announced this morning the ceremonial act to take place at the Grand Kremlin Palace, the majority of the international community denying its full credibility. Leaders from NATO, the United States and the EU have again mobilized in this regard today, assuring that the process of taking over the occupied territories by Russia is fraudulent and invalid. The UN will not take it into account either.
However, no one has yet answered the question whether this fact in any way changes the dimension of the war. According to the Kremlin, an attack on these regions would change the current status of the conflict to that of a defensive war in which Russia assumes the possibility of responding even with its nuclear arsenal. In other words, it remains to be seen what will happen if Ukraine bombs this area, which represents 15% of its territory, in the coming days, after Putin made it clear that his government would construe it as an attack on Russian civilians.
The signing of the decrees seems to be an act of immense importance that the Russian president, according to some Western media, wants to take advantage of to paint a picture of the distant invasion of the chain of failures it has undergone so far. It would also seek to boost the morale of Donbas separatists and encourage a divided domestic population. The formalization takes place a few hours after the arrival in Ukraine of the first group of soldiers recruited on the basis of Putin’s partial mobilization order. The Executive clarified that media workers are exempt from this service, as well as professionals from “currently basic” information technology companies and the financial system.
The Ukrainian press today emphasizes that the Russian authorities have installed a huge stage in Moscow to celebrate the annexation of the occupied territories with concerts and speeches. With the signature of the decrees by the President, it is foreseeable that a second procedure will begin aimed at creating the new political structures of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia -the inhabitants of which automatically become Russian citizens-, international status grant to the new territorial configuration of the Russian Federation and adapt this “subject” to the constitutional law, explains Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the Legislative Commission of the Russian State Duma, in “Pravda”.
In his opinion, all this will be settled in a few days under a protocol similar to that of the accession of Crimea, as “it makes no sense to prolong the process. Everything will happen in the near future, before our very eyes, so that we can witness this global legal and socio-economic historic event».
As Russia prepares for the ceremony, the West responds with a resounding rejection of annexation, announcing new sanctions and a tougher military response. In fact, the United States is preparing for a war that will last at least two more years and will see periods of extreme hardness. This is suggested by the Pentagon, which has devised a long-term strategy with the intention of accelerating the production of weapons with which to supply Kiev against the Russian military in a horizon between the next six months and 2025. There are already firm contracts in this period.
Defense sources released this information a few hours ago. The tightening of the White House’s weapons plans represents his response to the annexations and the forced mobilization of 300,000 soldiers ordered by Putin, but at the same time confirms the intention of the Joe Biden cabinet to support Ukraine to the end. The contracts that the Pentagon negotiates with the military industry mainly cover the most deadly and damaging weapons used against the invaders, as demonstrated by the recent collapse of the Russian front in Kharkov.
The United States has ordered an increase in production of “long-range ground artillery, air defense systems, air-to-ground munitions” and other equipment commanders deem necessary to give Ukraine a chance to weather a long war. It is almost about personalized orders for the type of combat practiced at the front. Kiev has also requested F-16s to bolster its air force and vehicles to move its logistics, to which the US has already responded with the delivery of 200 trucks and armored vehicles.
With this strategy, the White House plans to double its capacity to send weapons to Ukraine and assures that twenty other countries have also committed to accelerate the production of arsenals for this country. As an advance, the US government has approved a delivery worth 1,100 million, the most notable part of which is to contain 18 launchers of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), a “central component of the Ukrainian armed forces in the future”. So far, he had already supplied his army with 16 of these platforms.
Source: La Verdad
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