Russian-Occupied Kherson Government in Ukraine "Will Request Annexation by Putin"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The pro-Russian government in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, controlled by Russian forces, has decided to request territorial annexation from Russian President Putin, TASS news agency reported on the 11th (local time).

Kiril Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson civil-military joint administration, announced this at a press conference that day. He said, "We will ask Putin to accept Kherson as a full member of the Russian Federation."

His remarks were interpreted as an intention to promote Kherson's incorporation into Russia based on an agreement between the regional government and the Russian government, without going through a referendum process.

In response, the Kremlin commented, "Such a decision requires clear legal grounds, as was the case with Crimea in the past."

Kherson is a strategic point located on the route from the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, to the Ukrainian mainland and the eastern Donbas region. After invading Ukraine in February, Russian forces took control of Kherson and established a pro-Russian civil-military joint administration there.

Since then, senior officials of the United Russia party, the ruling party in Russia, have stated that they plan to keep Kherson under long-term Russian control without returning it to Ukraine.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.