The very act of voting, Putin said, was a “demonstration of patriotic feeling”. And this, he said, was particularly felt in areas of eastern and southern Ukraine now held by Russian forces – some since the launch of the February 2022 invasion, others taken over by Russian-backed separatists in 2014.
Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border into Ukraine in February 2022 and, after an unsuccessful initial attempt to move on the capital Kyiv, Moscow’s forces have concentrated their efforts on eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukraine recaptured large chunks of territory in late 2022, but well dug-in Russian troops have been holding their own and last month seized the eastern town of Avdiivka.
Putin said the patriotic choices were clear to residents of areas in Donbas in eastern Ukraine and Novorossiya – a tsarist term for parts of southern Ukraine – who had voted for annexation by Russia in 2022 referendums denounced by Western countries as illegal.
“(They) voted in a referendum in the most difficult of conditions for unification with Russia and will again in the coming days make their choice,” Putin said.
“Those participating in the special operation will also vote. They are an examples to all Russians.”
Source: CNA
