September 20, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office has responded to the sudden announcements of referendums on joining Russia in occupied parts of Ukraine.

"Naive blackmail with threats and horror stories of 'referendums', 'mobilizations' from those who know how to fight only with children and peaceful people ... This is what the fear of defeat looks like. The enemy is afraid, primitively manipulates," said Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, on his Telegram channel.

An adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Russians decided to “respond asymmetrically” to the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

“Thinking that illegal 'referendum' will stop HIMARS and the Armed Forces from destroying occupiers on our land. Do you really want to spend the time needed to escape for a new show? Try...It will be interesting...,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also dismissed the announcements in a tweet, calling the referendums a "sham."

In addition, Ukraine's foreign ministry also said, “such fake plebiscites” will have “no legal consequences.”

The vote will not change the “administrative-territorial structure and internationally recognized borders of Ukraine,” it said in a statement, adding that “neither Ukraine nor the international community will recognize their worthless results.”

The ministry called the vote “forced citizenship” of residents and said it is “another attempt of Russia to legitimize the consequences of its aggressive war against Ukraine.”

Remember: Multiple Kremlin-backed authorities in eastern and southern Ukraine announced referendums on joining Russia will be held this week. Senior Russian officials have welcomed the moves. 

The so-called National Congress of Citizens of the Zaporizhzhia Region has a referendum on unification with Russia, said Vladimir Rogov, a senior pro-Russian official in occupied Zaporizhzhia.

Representatives of the public of the Zaporizhzhia region gathered in Melitopol addressed the military-civilian administration, Rogov said.

The infrastructure for this endeavor is also ready, according to Yevgeniy Balitskiy, the Russian-appointed head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration.

“Technically, we are ready. Security of polling stations is ensured. Our borders are reliably protected by the Russian military," he said.

Meanwhile, as fighting continues in the area, he said the region will recruit “volunteers” in the "near future" to fight against Ukraine, adding that he has signed a decree on the “formation of volunteer battalions of Zaporizhzhia region.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Russian weapons and equipment used against Ukrainian forces while speaking in a meeting with the heads of enterprises of the military-industrial complex on Tuesday.

“First of all, this concerns aviation, high-precision long-range missiles, aviation weapons, rocket-artillery, armored weapons and others. They allow to destroy military infrastructure, command posts, enemy equipment, hit the locations of nationalist formations, while minimizing losses among personnel,” he added.

Putin claimed that Russia’s equipment “effectively resists” Western models of weapons and called on further increasing and modernizing production capacities.

“Organizations of the defense industrial complex need to ensure the delivery of the required weapons and equipment to the troops, weapons of destruction as soon as possible,” he said.

In remarks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, UN chief António Guterres used the description of a ship that transported Ukrainian grain to Africa as a “symbol of what the world can accomplish when we act together.”

"It navigated through a war zone — guided by the very parties to the conflict — as part of an unprecedented comprehensive initiative to get more food and fertilizer out of Ukraine and Russia," he said.

At the end of August, after 14 days at sea, a shipment of 23,000 metric tons of wheat arrived on the MV Brave Commander in the Horn of Africa to support the United Nations World Food Programme. After Russia blocked Ukrainian Black Sea ports, the UN and Turkey helped broker a deal to get grain out of Ukraine.

"The Black Sea Grain Initiative has opened the pathway for the safe navigation of dozens of ships filled with much needed food supplies. But each ship is also carrying one of today’s rarest commodities: Hope," he said.

But besides hope, action is needed is stabilize the world's fertilizer market, Guterres said.

"It is essential to continue removing all remaining obstacles to the export of Russian fertilizers and their ingredients, including ammonia. These products are not subject to sanctions – and we are making progress in eliminating indirect effects," he said.

"Without action now, the global fertilizer shortage will quickly morph into a global food shortage," he warned.

The EU Council on Tuesday cemented an additional 5 billion euros (nearly $5 billion) in macro-financial assistance for Ukraine by formally adopting the move agreed by the bloc's finance ministers earlier this month, according to the Council's website.

This marks the second stage of the EU's mobilization of up to 9 billion euros (nearly $9 billion) to support Ukraine’s macro-financial stabilization, "strengthen the immediate resilience of the country and sustain its capacity towards recovery," the statement reads.

It follows the 1 billion euros (about $1 billion) package adopted by the EU Council in July.

While the total macro-financial assistance package is made up of both loans and grants, the latest 5 billion euros is purely in loans, to be repaid by Ukraine within 25 years with guarantees, an EU spokesperson told CNN.

The "new loan of €5 billion will be used for the day-to-day running of the state and to ensure the operation of the country's critical infrastructure, such as offices, schools and hospitals," according to Zbyněk Stanjura, the finance minister of the Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU Council presidency.

Some background: EU finance ministers had agreed on a statement on Sept. 9 in support of the additional 5 billion euros in assistance for Ukraine. Today, this additional assistance was formally adopted, according to the press release.

The Russian-backed head of the Kherson regional administration, Vladimir Saldo, has announced that a referendum on the region joining Russia will be held between Sept. 23 and 27, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports.

Those are the same dates as announced by the self-declared republics of Luhansk and Donetsk.

"As head of the Administration of the Kherson region, I signed a decree on the referendum on the entry of the Kherson region into the Russian Federation as a full subject of the unified state," Saldo wrote on his Telegram channel. 

Parts of Kherson are on the front lines between Ukrainian and Russian forces.

"Considering the difficult situation in Kherson region and understanding its responsibility for life and peace of mind of the region's residents, the Administration of Kherson region will do everything necessary to ensure safety for all residents of the region," Saldo said.

Earlier: One week into Ukraine's counteroffensive in September, senior US officials and Ukrainian officials told CNN that Ukrainian forces were making gains in the south, with the ambitious goal of taking back most of the Russian-occupied region of Kherson by the end of the year.

Saldo said the referendum will "secure" the territory in the backdrop of this counteroffensive.

"I am sure that the incorporation of Kherson region into the Russian Federation will secure our territory and restore historical justice. This is a necessary decision in the context of constant acts of terror on the part of armed formations of Ukraine and NATO member countries, which supply weapons to kill civilians on our land," he said.

The leader of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, has written to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking for the rapid accession of the republic to the Russian federation once a referendum is held.

Here's his letter to Putin, as released on his Telegram channel: 

US officials have warned that Moscow officials might use such strategies to "falsely claim that the Ukrainian people want to join Russia."

The self-declared republic has not been recognized by any governments, other than Russia and its close ally Syria.

In comments shortly after both the self-declared Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics announced they would hold referendums on joining the Russian Federation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed "it is the people of those territories who should decide their fate."

According to Lavrov, the current situation shows that citizens of Donbas want to be "masters of their own destiny."

“From the very beginning of the special military operation and in the period preceding it, we have been saying that it is the people of those territories who should decide their fate," Lavrov is quoted as saying by state news agency RIA Novosti. "And the whole current situation confirms that they want to be masters of their own destiny.”

Russian officials continue to call the invasion of Ukraine a "special military operation."

Russian news agency TASS reported that the People's Council in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic has agreed to hold a "referendum on the entry of the DPR into the Russian Federation" starting later this week. 

The leader of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that the voting will be in "a mixed format - face-to-face and remote - taking into account security issues. One day will be allotted for in-person voting," he said, according to TASS.

The council is an unelected body. 

The leader of the self-declared Luhansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, also signed a law on a referendum "on the entry of the Republic into the Russian Federation," according to the Luhansk Media Center.

Pasechnik's move was announced by the chair of the People's Council of the LPR, Denis Miroshnichenko, soon after the council unanimously proposed the referendum. 

Miroshnichenko said the referendum would be held from Sept. 23 to Sept. 27, according to the local media portal Lug-Info. It quoted him as saying the question on the ballot would be: "Are you in favor of the LPR joining the Russian Federation as a constituent entity of the Russian Federation?"

Lug-Info said that according to the text of the law, "the Central Election Commission of the LPR will determine the results of the referendum on the Republic's entry into the LPR no later than five days after the last voting day."

This week has seen sudden moves in Donetsk, Luhansk and occupied parts of Kherson to hold referendums on joining Russia. Those moves have received swift support from Russian politicians.