Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ruled out peace talks with Russia if the country goes ahead with referendums in the occupied territories. Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the pro-Russian administration in the region, announced the decision to start the process during a pro-Moscow forum called “We are with Russia” held in Melitopol, the largest Russian-controlled city in Zaporizhzhia. “I am signing the order for the central election commission to start preparations for holding a referendum on the reunification of the Zaporizhzhia region with the Russian Federation,” Balitsky said. About two-thirds of Zaporizhzhia is Russian-held, part of a region of southern Ukraine seized by Moscow early in the war, including most of the neighboring Kherson region, where Russian officials have also discussed plans for a referendum. Map Russian-appointed officials in Zaporizhia said earlier that the government plans to go ahead with a referendum even if Russia does not gain control of the entire region. The city of Zaporizhzhia is still held by Ukraine. Ukraine and its Western allies have said any referendums held under Russian occupation would be illegal and their results falsified. In 2014, Moscow and its proxies held a widely condemned referendum in Crimea, weeks after its forces seized the peninsula. On Sunday, Zelensky said peace talks with Russia would be impossible if the country went ahead with such votes in the occupied territories. “The position of our country remains what it always was. We will not give up anything that is ours,” Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation. “If the occupiers go down the path of fake referendums, they will close for themselves any chance of talks with Ukraine and the free world, which the Russian side will clearly need at some point. Balitski on Monday did not provide further details on the timetable for the referendum. Bloomberg, citing two unnamed sources familiar with Moscow’s strategy, reported earlier that the Kremlin aims to hold the referendums by September 15. Kremlin-appointed officials in Kherson and Zaporizhia had already instigated a series of measures aimed at bringing the occupied territories closer to Russia and preparing the ground for a future referendum. Earlier this summer, Russian occupation authorities had begun issuing Russian passports to locals in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Moscow has also forced Ukrainian teachers in occupied territories to follow the Russian curriculum, while “We are with Russia” billboards have sprung up in occupied cities. In a move that further signals Moscow’s intentions, pro-Russian authorities in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia have set up local “election commissions” to be responsible for holding the referendums. President Vladimir Putin initially denied Moscow was seeking to seize new land when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. However, he has since made a series of statements in which he has sought to justify what he has portrayed as Russia’s historic quests to regain Russian territory. Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had expanded its war aims in Ukraine, saying they now extend to Kherson and Zaporizhia. The Kremlin has also repeatedly hinted that it would recognize referendums being held in the occupied Ukrainian territories, which would give Putin the opportunity to declare the occupied territories Russian territory. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Ukraine, bolstered by Western arms, has vowed to launch a major counter-offensive in the country’s south. However, the annexation of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia could complicate Ukraine’s efforts to retake the territories: if annexed by Moscow, the territories would be protected by the country’s nuclear arsenal. Speaking to the BBC on Monday, retired British general Sir Richard Barrons said a successful Ukrainian counter-offensive launched in the southern regions annexed by Moscow would raise the prospect of Russia using “small nuclear weapons”. “Ukraine will now push into territory that Russia has declared as Russia, and at that point doctrinally and probably politically, Russia will start to push its tactical, its small nuclear weapons,” Barons said, adding that those the weapons will have a radius of “about two miles.” “We have to think about it and not think of it as some kind of terrible surprise that is completely unthinkable,” he said.
