Putin said Russia would use all available means to defend its territory, implying that after annexation, Moscow could deploy nuclear weapons to repulse Ukrainian attempts to retake the territory.
“I want to remind you – the deaf who hear only themselves: Russia has the right to use nuclear weapons if necessary,” former leader Dmitry Medvedev – a Putin ally who is now deputy chairman of Russia’s security council – said on social media on Tuesday.
Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said the United States was taking the reiterated threat “seriously” but had seen nothing to cause Washington to change its nuclear posture.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that “Russia must know that the nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”.
The four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine announced that they would hold the elections just days before voting began last Friday.
Together, they form a crucial land connection for the Kremlin between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and is otherwise only connected to the mainland by bridge.
“DIABOLICAL SCHEME”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed that the West would never recognise Russian annexations of the territories, threatening Moscow with “additional swift and severe costs” for its “diabolical scheme”.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, in Kyiv for a surprise visit to meet Zelenskyy, called the polls a “masquerade” that would trigger further Western sanctions.
At the United Nations, top official Rosemary DiCarlo told a meeting of the Security Council the body “remains fully committed” to Ukraine’s territorial integrity “within its internationally recognised borders”.
The United States intends to submit a resolution urging UN member states “not to recognise any altered status of Ukraine and obligating Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine”, said US envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
However, there is no chance of the Security Council reaching a united stance on the annexation move.
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s UN ambassador, made clear Russia would wield its Security Council veto again, criticising the move as “temper tantrums of the Western delegations”.
“The referendums were conducted exclusively transparently, with upholding of all the electoral norms,” Nebenzia argued, adding that the West’s only aim was to “weaken and bleed dry Russia as much as possible”.
Polling stations were open in Crimea for people who fled fighting after the Russian invasion in February.
“With my voice I want to try to make a small contribution to stopping the war,” 63-year-old Galina Korsakova from Donetsk told AFP.
“I really want to go home.”
The so-called referendums follow a pattern that Moscow utilised in Crimea after nationwide street demonstrations saw Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president ousted.
As in Crimea, observers saw the outcome as a foregone conclusion. Election officials brought ballot boxes door-to-door, in many cases accompanied by armed Russian forces.
According to Russian state media, the next step is for Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, to approve an annexation bill formally incorporating the four regions into Russian territory. This could happen on Wednesday and would be followed by Russian upper house approval.
Putin is then expected on Friday to formally declare the Ukrainian regions part of Russia, according to Russian news agencies.
Ukrainian forces are pursuing their counter-offensive in the east.
The governor of the eastern Kharkiv region announced on Tuesday its forces had recaptured Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, “one of the largest logistical and railway junctions” in the region. It is not participating in this week’s vote.
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