Ukraine.. Heavy fighting as Russian referendum nears end

 Ukraine. Heavy fighting as the Russian referendum nears the end

Residential buildings in the Ukrainian city were destroyed by war activity

Ukrainian and Russian forces fought fierce fighting in various regions of Ukraine on Tuesday, as referendums organized by Russia in four regions it hopes to annex are nearing their end.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Donetsk region within the east remains a top strategic priority for his country, and for Russia moreover, while fighting rages in several towns at a time when Russian forces are attempting to advance south and west, in step with Reuters.

Clashes also materialized within the northeastern Kharkiv region, the main focus of Ukraine's counter-offensive this month. Ukrainian forces continued a campaign to decommission four bridges and other river crossings to disrupt the availability lines of Russian forces within the south.

The Southern Command of the Ukrainian militia said, on Tuesday, that its counterattack in Kherson inflicted losses on the enemy, amounting to 77 soldiers, six tanks, five howitzers, three anti-aircraft systems, and 14 armored vehicles.

Moscow hopes to incorporate the regions of Kherson, Lugansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhia, within the east and south, which constitute about 15 percent of Ukraine's area.

None of these areas are under Moscow's full control, and fighting continues along the complete line, as Ukrainian forces have announced further advances since they defeated Russian forces during a fifth district, Kharkiv, earlier this month.

Russian President national leader implicitly threatened to use nuclear weapons to shield his country's territory, which might include the four regions if annexed.

The vote on its annexation to Russia began on Friday and is scheduled to finish on Tuesday, with the Russian parliament possibly approving the annexation within days.

reject referendums

Kyiv and therefore the West reject the referendums as shams, vowing to not recognize the results.

US President Joe Biden pledged during a statement Friday that we would "work with its allies and partners to impose additional rapid and decisive economic measures against Russia" if it annexed Ukrainian territory.

Biden, who had previously taken several economic and financial sanctions against the regime of Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, considered that "the Russian referendums are sham and a false pretext to undertake to annex parts of Ukraine by force."

Biden stressed that u. s. won't recognize Russia's sovereignty over any Ukrainian territory annexed by Moscow, pledging to continue supporting the Ukrainian people.

"We will work with our allies and partners to impose rapid and severe additional economic costs on Russia," Biden said.

The Last Day of polls

On Tuesday, Russia will finish organizing referendums in four regions that it controls in whole or partially in Ukraine, angering Kyiv and Western countries, which promised a robust response within the event of its annexation, consistent with AFP.

In parallel, Moscow continues to partially mobilize reserve soldiers to recruit about 300,000 soldiers to participate in its invasion of Ukraine and to counter the Ukrainian counter-attack, which, because of Western weapons supplies, has allowed it to recover thousands of square kilometers since the start of September.

These referendums are happening since Friday within the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine and also the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions within the east, which are under Russian occupation. Ukraine and its allies have denounced these "sham" referendums.

The G7 countries pledged to "never recognize" the results of the elections, while Washington promised a "quick and harsh" response by imposing additional economic sanctions in the event of the annexation of those areas, just like what happened with Crimea in March 2014.

China called on Moscow's major partner to respect the "territorial integrity of all countries", without denouncing these referendums.

However, these criticisms and threats didn't deter Moscow, which hastily organized last week these referendums against the backdrop of Ukrainian military gains, opening many polling stations within the four regions and in Russia for refugees to vote.

The authorities confirmed that "provisional results" would be announced on Tuesday evening and within the following days. The Russian parliament will then vote on a law legalizing the annexation of the four regions to Russia.

Parade attacks

Moscow announced the referendums after a Ukrainian counter-attack allowed Kyiv to regain control of most of the country's northeastern Kharkiv region.

After the withdrawal of Russian forces from these areas, the Ukrainian authorities announced the invention of mass graves, especially a site containing over 400 graves in a forest near the town of Izyum.

On Monday, investigators were preparing to uncover another supposed mass grave in a deserted area near the tiny town of Kozachka Luban, where Russian and Ukrainian soldiers killed in the fighting may are buried.

On the bottom, Russian attacks have intensified with Iranian marches in recent days, especially over Odesa, which has an outsized port on the Black Sea, where two "suicide" planes struck military installations, on Monday, causing an oversized fire and explosion of ammunition, in line with what the Ukrainian military leadership announced.

And on Monday, the Ukrainian army announced that it had recorded Russian bombings of quite 40 cities and towns, and repelled attacks in about ten directions, including "Solidar" and "Bakhmut" within the east.

Moscow, for its part, continued to claim that it incurred heavy losses to Kyiv.

And if the referendums cause the annexation of those areas to Russia, which there's little doubt about, this may constitute an escalation of the conflict, especially since President national leader has threatened nuclear strikes to defend what he considers Russian territory.

In Russia, Putin's announcement of calling up a part of the reserves prompted many Russians to depart the country with a rush to the borders, without having the ability to form estimates in numbers for this phenomenon.

recruitment

The order to summon about 300,000 soldiers from the reserve forces in Russia led to the primary continuous protests since the beginning of the invasion, and one in all the observers estimated that a minimum of 2,000 people had been arrested to this point.

All airline tickets were sold out of Russia and car congestion blocked border checkpoints, with reports of scholars getting sick