The US has “highly reliable” intelligence reports that indicate that Russia will try to annex the separatist-occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk “sometime in mid-May” and that there are plans to create a so-called “people’s republic” in Kherson to also be annexed, revealed the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

“Reports indicate that Russia has plans to engineer referendums on membership of Russia in mid-May and that Moscow is considering a similar plan for Kherson,” Ambassador Michael Carpenter said at a State Department press conference.

Carpenter added that Russia is kidnapping local authorities in cities it controls in eastern and southern Ukraine to replace them with “groups loyal to Moscow” and that “school principals, journalists, local activists, city officials” are also disappearing. 

Source: with agencies