Senior Russian Security Official Supports Separatist Group Referendum in Ukraine

Dmitry Medvedev. (Wikimedia Commons/Publicинистай езидинта осии)

JAKARTA - One of Russia's senior security officials, Dmitry Medvedev, has praised a proposal by Moscow-backed separatists to hold a referendum, paving the way for the annexation of swathes of Ukraine as a way to scare the West.

Leaders of Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk and the Lugansk People's Republic, which President Putin recognized as an independent state shortly before the invasion, agreed on Monday to harmonize plans for a vote on joining Russia.

Officials in the Russian-controlled Kherson region of Ukraine on Tuesday called for a referendum on joining Russia.

Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russia's president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said such a referendum would change the course of Russia's history, allowing the Kremlin more options to defend what he said would become Russian territory.

"Encroachment into Russian territory is a crime that allows you to use all self-defense forces", Medvedev said in a post on Telegram.

"This is why this referendum is so feared in Kyiv and the West."

"Just as important after the amendment of the constitution of our country, no future leader of Russia, no official can reverse this decision", he stressed.

If President Putin formally annexed most of the Ukraine extras, it would essentially challenge the United States and its European allies to risk a direct military confrontation with Russia.

"The referendum in Donbas is very important, not only for the systematic protection of the residents of the LPR, DPR, and other liberated areas but also for the restoration of historic justice", said Medvedev.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after the pro-Russian president was ousted in the Ukrainian Maidan Revolution, with Russia annexing Crimea while Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas sought to escape Kyiv's control.

It is not clear how the separatist referendum will work in the war. Russian and Russian-backed forces control only about 60 percent of Donetsk territory. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are trying to retake Lugansk.

Russian troops seized the entire Lugansk region at the start of the war, although Ukrainian officials said on Monday they had retaken a village in the region, as part of their ongoing counter-offensive.

Most of the territory claimed by Donetsk is still under Ukrainian control, with Kyiv still holding territory in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.