Ukraine Advancements: Occupied regions announce votes to join Russia

• Kremlin-backed officials in Ukraine announce they will stage votes on joining Russia.
• Move cheered by Moscow and dismissed by Kyiv as desperate attempt to stymie Ukrainian counteroffensive.
• President Vladimir Putin urges defense industry chiefs to boost military production.

Officials in occupied areas of southern and eastern Ukraine announced on Tuesday that they would hold referendums on formally joining Russia this week, moves that were applauded in Moscow but dismissed by Kyiv as a desperate attempt to stem the tide of a successful counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops.

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin urged defence industry leaders to increase military production, and Russia’s parliament approved a bill toughening penalties for a variety of crimes, including desertion, committed during periods of mobilisation or martial law.

The sudden flurry of activity suggested that the Kremlin was preparing to dramatically escalate its approach to a conflict that had been dragging on for nearly seven months and had recently shifted away from its forces. Its public supporters cheered the prospect of “all-out war” and a new confrontation with the West, which has warned that holding “sham” elections in those areas would be an illegal escalation.

It was unclear what impact such votes would have on the ground, with analysts speculating that the sudden moves could signal a growing concern about how long Russia’s struggling military can maintain control over the territory it has occupied.

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Separatist officials in eastern Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as the southern Kherson region and partially occupied Zaporizhzhia, announced plans to hold elections over four days beginning Friday, according to Russia’s state news agency Tass.

It was unclear whether the proposed annexation would encompass the entire provinces or just the areas currently occupied by Russian forces.

The rapid developments come just a week after Ukraine successfully reclaimed swaths of territory in northeastern Kharkiv province, in what many observers said could be a decisive shift after more than six months of grinding war that has exposed Russian military vulnerability and sparked criticism from even the most ardent Kremlin supporters at home.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based military think tank, the urgency of the move to have Moscow annex the occupied areas suggests that Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive is “panicking proxy forces and some Kremlin decision-makers.”

“This is a reaction to the fact that they cannot hold territory with their current conventional forces, so they have to create this additional safeguard by formally annexing this territory,” explained Orysia Lutsevych, a research fellow at the London think tank Chatham House.

In 2014, Russia held a referendum to annex the Crimean Peninsula, which was widely condemned by the international community.

However, this time the referendums coincide with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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