Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forced march for the annexation of the occupied Ukrainian territories does not stop. Following the referendums, the annexation will officially take place today at a ceremony in St George’s Hall in the Kremlin, in which Putin himself will participate, during which the heads of the four regions (i.e. Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia) will sign treaties of accession to Russia.
Putin’s action, which in the meantime also accused Western countries of wanting to unleash a “bloody massacre” in the areas of the Commonwealth of Independent States that brings together several republics of the former USSR, provoked a prompt response from Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president has called, again for today, an urgent meeting of the Security and National Defense Council. Zelensky also discussed referendums defined as “illegal” with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. In the interview, the Ukrainian president stressed his intention to react decisively to the Kremlin move, while Draghi confirmed that Italy will not recognize the referendums, reiterating his support for the Ukrainian people.
The referendum issue was also raised by the EU, which called Moscow’s electoral initiative a “farce”, explaining that the annexation of the occupied territories “will never be accepted”. Tension, therefore, remains high, so much so that the Italian embassy in Moscow invited compatriots present in Russia to “assess whether a stay is necessary and, if not, to leave the country.”
Russian citizens with a tourist visa will not be able to enter Finland. This was established by the Finnish government, which closed its borders with Moscow because “the continuous arrivals of Russian tourists to Finland are putting the country’s international relations at risk”. There is also a situation of great tension with regard to the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which has been damaged by several explosions in recent days. In Sweden, a fourth leak was reported after a new explosion, while the Kremlin said the damage was linked to a “terrorist act by a foreign country”, stressing that it had no idea whether the pipeline “could be restarted”. NATO, for its part, believes there was “sabotage” action on the Nord Stream and promised a “united and determined response” to any deliberate damage to the facility. The sabotage hypothesis was returned to the sender from Moscow. In particular, the Russian embassy in Rome scoffed at the Italian media who credited this thesis. “Those who believed that the Russians were bombing each other at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant will also believe that the Russians blew up their own pipeline in the Baltic, which cost them tens of billions of dollars,” reads a Russian embassy statement. In Italy.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
