Russia Planning to Annex Parts of Ukraine

“Russian officials and their proxies in Ukraine are racing to permanently annex occupied regions in the south of the country, probably by engineering referendums, perhaps as early as September,” the Washington Post reports.

“Senior officials and Kremlin propagandists on state television have warned that Russia will never leave the occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine — home to more than 2.5 million people before the Russian invasion — and that the return of territory will not be up for negotiation should peace talks resume.”