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Authorities in the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, an area of strategic importance for its access to the Black Sea, plan to submit a request to Moscow to be formally accepted as part of Russia, a Kremlin-affiliated official said on Wednesday.
“There will be a request to introduce the Kherson region as a full-fledged unit in the Russian Federation,” the Russian-appointed Deputy Chief of the Military-Civil Administration in the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, said on Wednesday during a press conference in comments carried by Russian state news TASS.
The Kherson region will prepare the legal framework for joining Russia before the end of the year, the TASS authorities quoted. Almost the entire region has been under Russian military rule since early March.
In response, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the only request that pro-Russian officials in the Kherson region should prepare was “for pardon following a court ruling”.
“The occupiers can ask to join even Mars or Jupiter. The Ukrainian army will liberate Kherson, no matter what puns the occupiers come up with,” he said in a Twitter post on Wednesday.
The development follows Moscow’s recognition of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin had ordered Russian troops into the two breakaway regions of Ukraine after recognizing their independence in February.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the people of the Kherson region must decide their own fate.
“Such significant decisions must have an absolutely clear legal basis, a legal justification and be absolutely legitimate, as was the case with Crimea,” Peskov said.
Ukraine and most of the international community regard Crimea as occupied Ukrainian territory.
–Alina Heineke contributed to this post.