Posted on 09/25/2022 7:09:15 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
The Kremlin appears to have sent soldiers to force Ukrainians to vote in its staged referendums at gunpoint, according to residents who say troops came to their homes in occupied territories to enforce the 'vote'.
'My family was just forced to vote at gunpoint in Russian cosplay of a "referendum” in southern Ukraine,' said Maxim Eristavi, journalist and co-founder of Hromadske International, a broadcasting station in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian journalist posted a video purporting to show armed soldiers entering the hallways where his family live and forcing them to vote in favour of joining Russia.
Western countries have accused Russia of staging illegitimate referendums in Ukraine as a pretext for annexing parts of its neighbour.
Kyiv called out the exercise as a bare-faced attempt by Russia to hold on to occupied territory now threatened by the Ukrainian army's counter-offensive.
Eristavi added that his family members were also forced to take part in the same exercises in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 — in an attempt to fool foreign audiences into thinking the voting was free and fair.
Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Crimea are all Ukrainian regions at least partially under Russian occupation where the referendums are being held — with the results fixed by Moscow.
Russian state media said the armed guards enforcing the door-to-door voting are there for 'security'.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
We are shocked that Russia will do whatever it has to in order to prevent the strategic red line of having a NATO member on its border?
Would we allow Chinese or Russian bases next to our border?
Get a grip people. Nations have red lines to ensure their security. We shouldn’t be shocked in their response. It was all too predictable.
15% of Ukraine will be part of the Russian Federation next week. Deal with it.
duuh, you don't know that Poland has been part of NATO since 1997 and the Baltics since 2004?? They are Russian neighbours
and all requested to join because they were afraid of a Russian invasion. Russia invades non NATO countries.
“We are shocked that Russia will do whatever it has to in order to prevent the strategic red line of having a NATO member on its border?”
NATO members that are now sharing borders with Russia: Finland, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania. NATO threatens no one. NATO is a defensive alliance to defend against an aggressor nation
“Poland has been part of NATO since 1997 and the Baltics since 2004”
Once again I thank you for your comment.
You are looking through Western eyes. Look through Russian eyes. Ukraine is a far bigger threat to Russia if it goes NATO: that is the Russian perception.
NATO is solely defensive? That has never been the Russian perception.
Finland, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania are not relevant to the Black Sea fleet. They are not relevant to Russia’s ability to get commodities to the market nor are they relevant for sailing said fleet unimpaired.
Russia will not play by moral laws when a red line is broken. Bottom line: 15% of Ukraine goes back to Russia next week. Then it becomes a game of who wants to continue fighting (and support fighting) into Russian territory— and what their response will be.
FAFO at a strategic level.
Sham elections seem pointless, since they fool no one. But they do serve as a modern equivalent to bending the knee.
The Daily Mail has human interest stories, but it isn’t a hard news site...
Sad you wasted your time to learn such a simple lesson
“Russia will not play by moral laws”
‘Nuff said. Except, it is PUTIN will not play by moral laws!
No nation plays by moral laws when their red lines are threatened.
“People close to me lived in the occupied territory during the first stage of the Russian invasion 2014-2015. When they managed to evacuate, they said that the Russians were doing about the same as in Bucha, and Izyum in many towns of Luhansk region and Donetsk region (raped, killed, tortured), just because of the occupation and total lying propaganda
It’s not necessary plagued in the media, or the crimes of the Russians tried to present as “actions of Ukrainian saboteurs” and t. d. And those who denied or witnessed war crimes disappeared or were intimidated. Gradually under occupation and dense propaganda, some people even developed “Stockholm syndrome”.
The Kremlin understands that the de-occupation of towns that have been occupied by Russians for more than 8 years will open a new layer of war crimes, mass burials of civilians, genocide of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine by the Rashists themselves, which will be difficult to hide.
So I’m not even surprised if the Ukrainian army once again breaks up the rasist mobilízovaní groups and drives them to the border - Putin will order to hit Luhansk region or Donetsk region with tactical nuclear weapons (allegedly to stop the incoming forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine). But the intelligence of Ukraine and partner countries and agents of the West who are in Russia itself will warn us in advance and Ukrainian forces will have time to manipulate.
So the blow itself will actually bury the Donbass and turn it into an exclusion zone - it will be “the last gesture of good will” and at the same time the last step that will lead to the complete international isolation and collapse of Russia.
Perhaps such a scenario sounds pretty fantastic, but for some reason it seems to me that it can be quite implemented, based on the fact that Putin chooses the worst options and himself is bringing the collapse of not only his regime, but of the whole Russia.”-Roman Burko
REMEMBER
PUTIN invaded without “red-lines” in 2014. This has nothing to do with “Red Lines” 2022 is just an acceleration of Putin’s INVASION!
daily mail propaganda is always good for a laugh!
hey troll, winter is coming
I’m looking at your incorrect statement “We are shocked that Russia will do whatever it has to in order to prevent the strategic red line of having a NATO member on its border?”
Russia has had NATO at its borders since 1997
Furthermore you talk of the black sea fleet. Well, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania are all in NATO before 2004.
Finally, the Ukrainian request to join NATO was rejected in 2008 and was to be rejected again.
Why?
Germany and France did not want to “provoke Russia”.
Didn’t work.
If a country neighbouring Russia is not a part of NATO then Russia will invade it.
Nothing is laughable about the Russian invasion initiated and continued by PUTIN.
The Russian pattern of “Transnistrian” policy controls ‘zones’ of frozen conflicts in Moldova (Transnistria region), Georgia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia), and in Ukraine annexed Crimean peninsula and the Donbas.
Russia uses this wider pattern of created separatist conflicts to create corruption and criminality as ‘Trojan horses’ to block progress in reform-minded periphery countries. This is the Russian tactics part of their geopolitical strategy creating conflict zones to prevent countries from entering NATO and integrating into the European Union. CONFLICTS in these by Russia AS being part of Russia imperialistic plan to regain strategic points of its LOST EMPIRE.
During its first phase in February–March 2014, the Ukrainian territory of Crimea was invaded by Putin and subsequently annexed by Russia. An internationally unrecognized referendum followed, with the United Nations General Assembly voting in favor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Local separatists directed and financed by the Russian security services occupied government buildings in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv oblasts in early March 2014. The Ukrainian government was able to quickly quell this unrest, and removed the separatists by 10 March.
However in April 2014, armed Russian-backed groups seized government buildings across Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, together known as the Donbas, and launched a separatist insurgency in the region.
To end this insurgency, the Ukrainian government began what it called an “Anti-Terrorist Operation” (ATO), sending in the armed forces to quell the unrest. Unrest in Kharkiv and Odesa oblasts did not escalate into full-scale armed conflict. AGAIN, order was restored in these regions with the co-operation of the local civil authorities although pro-Russian disturbances, such as bombings, continued throughout the year.
Socialism: “Do what you are told or we will arrest you”
Communism: “Do what you are told or we will kill you”
And what pray tell arw examples of ‘real’ countries.
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