Russia says accusations about plans to annex parts of Ukraine are “fundamentally false”

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Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday branded as “fundamentally false” US allegations about Moscow’s plans to annex occupied territories in Ukraine and said they are working to “return peace to the liberated territories”.

“Claims about the aggressive nature of the Russian special military operation are fundamentally false. We are returning peace to the liberated territories, creating circumstances for normal life and respecting the rights of all citizens, regardless of their ethnicity or language,” the Russian Embassy in the United States has said.

“The Russian leadership has repeatedly said that the population of the liberated territories will decide their future independently,” it said in a message on its Telegram account, before stressing that the US “insinuations” are “a new confirmation of Washington’s desire to keep the conflict hot as long as possible.”

Thus, he has argued that “the command circles in the United States are not driven by a concern for the Ukrainians, but by a desire to cause maximum damage to Russia.” “Our country will continue to work vigorously to establish a peaceful life on the liberated lands and fulfill all the tasks of the special military operation,” he has maintained.

The Russian Embassy in the United States has extolled that “the whole country has risen up to help the affected settlements.” “Infrastructure, housing and social facilities are being actively restored. Thousands of specialists are involved in the process. It is planned to build about 500 kilometers of roads and bridges in the Donbas by the end of the year,” he added.

Finally, he stressed that “the delivery of humanitarian aid does not stop” and explained that “to date more than 45,0000 tons of humanitarian aid have been sent to Ukraine, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic.” “What does this have to do with the concept of annexation?” he has asked.

The statement was released a day after Pentagon spokesman John Kirby warned that the White House has “ample evidence” that Russia fully annexes Ukrainian territories it already controls, Thus, he said that the Kremlin will appoint “illegitimate” officials in those regions of Ukraine already under its control to organize “fake referendums” on the accession of these areas to Russia.

In this way, he stressed that Moscow has in mind to push for such plebiscites in the Kherson and Zaporiyia regions and especially in the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kirby stressed that this would not be something new on Russia’s part, as its president, Vladimir Putin, already made use of the “annexation playbook” to incorporate the Crimean peninsula into Russian territory in 2014.