Moscow began orchestrating referendums on joiningRussiain areas it occupies in Ukraine on Friday, an effort widely seen as a sham that is expected to culminate in the annexation of an area larger than Portugal.
While the Kremlin has used referendums and annexation in the past to exert its will, the boldness of President Vladimir Putin’s gambit in Ukraine far exceeds anything it has tried before. Huge numbers of people have fled the areas thatRussiacontrols, the process has been rushed, and referendums are taking place against a backdrop of oppression — with U.N. experts citing evidence of war crimes in a forceful new statement.
Ukraine on Friday criticised Iran for supplying weapons toRussiaafter announcing a civilian was killed during a Russian attack on the southern port city of Odessa that featured an Iranian-made drone.
"The use of Iranian-made weapons by Russian troops... are steps taken by Iran against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state, as well as against the life and health of Ukrainian citizens," a spokesman for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sergii Nykyforov, wrote on Facebook.
Helsinki announced Friday that it would "significantly restrict the entry of Russian citizens," after Finland saw an influx over its eastern border followingRussia's mobilisation orders.
Citing "serious damage to Finland's international position," the ministerial committee on Foreign and Security Policy also concluded that new visas would be restricted, the government said in a statement.
Uzbekistan's top religious authority urged Uzbeks on Friday not to get involved in the conflict in Ukraine, saying that doing so was against the Islamic faith, afterRussiaoffered fast-track citizenship to foreigners those who join its army.
The Muslim Board said members of some "terrorist organisations" were recruiting Muslims to fight in the Ukraine conflict under the pretext of "jihad" or holy war.
Kyiv said Friday its forcesrecaptured a village in the eastern Donetsk region and territory around another war-scarred town there, as Moscow-proxies held votes on annexation byRussia.
"The Ukrainian army has retaken the village of Yatskivka in the Donetsk region," a senior army official told reporters, adding that Kyiv's forces had "also regained controlled over positions to the south of Bakhmut," also in Donetsk, where voting was underway Friday in Russian-controlled territory.