Zelensky: Russia wants to annex part of Ukraine to draft Ukrainians into its army

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this during a conversation with the students and lecturers of Harvard University, Ukrinform reports.

"These days, Russia hopes to announce a new annexation of the occupied territories of Ukraine. This has been in preparation for a long time, this has been obvious for a long time. We see these sham referenda in those territories that Russia wants to "devour". And we know that the mobilization in Russia was announced on the eve of this new criminal annexation not by chance. The goal is obvious - the occupier wants to take the residents of the occupied territory into the army. 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," Zelensky said.

At the same time, he noted that there is no preventive sanctions strike that would show Russia that it will not be able to "devour" any part of Ukraine.

"When there is such a lack of preventive measures, when leadership is manifested afterwards - in response, in adaptation to the negative consequences of certain actions of Russia, this leads to a loss of time, a loss of opportunities. It makes the path to peace longer," Zelensky added.

As reported, the invaders on September 23-27 held sham referendums on the accession of the temporarily occupied regions to the Russian Federation. The international community did not recognize the legality of such a staged "expression of will."

On September 21, Putin signed a decree on "partial" mobilization in Russia. According to media reports, as many as 1-1.2 million people could be called up to fight in Russia's war in Ukraine.