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The Ukrainian president celebrated the new victory that the national army had in an important railway enclave in Donetsk and predicted that the number of flags that “will wave in the Donbass” will increase in the coming days. For its part, the Russian Constitutional Court gave its approval to the annexation referendums held in the last week. In addition, Pope Francis called for the aggression to cease in the face of possible nuclear threats.
The war in Ukraine continues with setbacks towards the invading troops, who once again withdrew from an area now recovered by the counteroffensive of the local Armed Forces. After positive news for kyiv in Lyman occurred during the week, this Sunday, October 2, President Volodímir Zelenski officially assured the victory.
“The Ukrainian flag is already flying in Lyman, in the Donetsk region, and it is going to stay there,” the president remarked in the words after the imposition in the transcendental railway enclave that was under Russian command.
Zelenski also warned that this will be the first of many reconquests that will take place in the territories recently annexed by Russia, whose referendums he branded as an “absolute farce.”
“They staged a number, they went through the houses with machine guns, they distributed pieces of paper and the propagandists made films with the occupied areas,” he said. “Now the Ukrainian flag flies there,” she added.
After consecutive weeks in which Russian troops have withdrawn and kyiv has recovered territory, Zelensky doubled down and warned that they will continue with the recaptures, including the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014. “Ukraine will recover what belongs to it” , he concluded.
Likewise, the one who publicly celebrated the Ukrainian advance was the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. The official stressed the importance of recovering a fraction recently annexed by Moscow and stressed that local forces are capable of pushing back the invaders.
The Russian Constitutional Court approved the annexations
This Sunday, the Russian high court gave its approval to the treaties signed last Friday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the respective separatist leaders of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.
The entity reported that “the international treaty signed is in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.”
The Court published four legal provisions on its website and detailed that they consider the annexation referendums that took place in the east and south of Ukraine to be constitutional. Valeri Zorkin, the highest authority of the Constitutional Court, led the meeting in which the request was studied.
The procedure is happening in the same way as in 2014, when Russia was awarded the Crimean peninsula, previously holding a referendum.
Last Friday, Putin justified the expansionist actions by recalling that these kilometers were part of the former Soviet Union and that Russia shaped the Ukrainian territory by ceding large regions, so it is “historically” fair that they be recovered.
Pope Francis asked Putin for the end of the war
The pope spoke publicly for the first time to the Russian president and asked him “for the love of his people” to end “the spiral of violence and death” that is developing in Ukraine.
Without mentioning the name of the Russian head of state, the pontiff urged the use of “diplomatic instruments” to end the war in Eastern Europe. While he went to Volodimir Zelensky and encouraged him to “be open to serious proposals for peace.”
My appeal is addressed first of all to the President of the Russian Federation, imploring him to stop, also out of love for his people, this spiral of violence and death. #Ukraine #Russia @KremlinRussia_E
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex_es) October 2, 2022
Francis expressed his sorrow for the “rivers of blood and tears” that have taken place in recent months, with “thousands of victims, especially children” and the “many destructions that left many people and families homeless.”
In addition, he also stressed his fear that the escalation of aggression will enter the nuclear field. “It’s absurd, what else needs to happen?” she exclaimed.
In his extensive speech about what is happening with the war in Ukraine, he tacitly rejected the procedure that Moscow had carried out by annexing four regions in the last few hours, which he described as a “serious situation with actions contrary to the principles of international law.”
With EFE and AFP
