Zelensky tells Ukrainians living under occupation to avoid conscription ‘by any means.’
With Russia laying the groundwork to officially annex the areas it occupies, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine directly asked Ukrainians to help the nation’s war effort even from within its own territory. occupied territory.
Russian-backed officials in eastern and southern Ukraine continue to perform referendum began on Friday and is considered by many to be staged to create an excuse for Moscow to annex those regions into the Russian Federation. That would allow the Kremlin to attract people from the region for its war effort and frame attacks on the territory as attacks on Russia.
President Biden condemned the referendums as “a sham – a false pretext to try to annex parts of Ukraine by force, in clear violation of international law.”
“The United States will never recognize Ukrainian territory as anything other than part of Ukraine,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Mr. Zelensky, in Friday nightly addressasked people living in areas under partial Russian control – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizka and Kherson – to avoid Russian mobilization efforts “by all means” and try to advance to Ukrainian-held lands holding.
If they can’t, and end up in the Russian army, Mr. Zelensky asks them to support Ukraine’s war from within.
“Sabotage any enemy activity, interfere with any Russian activity, provide us with any important information about the occupiers – bases, headquarters, ammunition depots. theirs,” he said. “And at the first opportunity, switch to our position. Do everything to save your life and help liberate Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian party has play an important role in the fight from behind the enemy’s front lines. They are believed to have participated in an attack on a Russian airbase in Crimea, an area under Moscow’s control since 2014, and attack Russian-appointed officials in occupied cities.
As referendums on Russia’s accession began this week, partisans targeted electoral infrastructure, blowing up vote depots or buildings where officials were sitting. meeting to prepare for the vote. An explosion rocked the Russian-controlled southern city of Melitopol on Friday morning before the vote began.
Mr. Zelensky said in his speech that Ukraine’s incredible advance in recent weeks, which has forced Russia to retreat in the northeast of the country, was enabled by the cooperation of Ukrainians living in the country. under Russian rule there.
Praising their efforts, he said, “Let’s do everything to increase such help.”
After Russian President Vladimir V. Putin announced a deployment this week that could send about 300,000 people into the army, Ukrainians in the occupied lands expressed concern about a similar fate.
Mr Zelensky called such advocacy efforts “criminals” and called on outside governments to condemn the draft and “fake” referendums in occupied Ukraine.