Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Moscow plans to annex four occupied regions in Ukraine and will force people to join the Russian military, saying “either you are killed, or you kill.”
The ballots held in the occupied parts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are illegal under international law and have been widely condemned by Western countries as “sham” referendums.
Zelensky claimed the Kremlin planned to “force” people living in the occupied areas to fight in the Russian military. “The goal (of annexation) is obvious — the occupier wants to take the residents of the occupied territory into the army,” he said during a speech made via video link to students at Harvard University on Tuesday.
“Either you are killed, or you kill — Russia wants to force hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in the occupied lands to make such a choice.” he added.
Any attempt to annex Ukrainian territory “will mean that there is nothing to talk about with this President of Russia,” Zelensky said in another speech to the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
