--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It looked a whole lot like Vladimir Putin was losing his war a few weeks ago. Ukrainian army kicking Russian arse, retaking a huge swath of territory, and forcing Putin's troops into an embarrassing retreat. Not just in Ukraine, but with the Russian public too.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The politician says, those people who convinced Putin the special operation would be over quickly, they took us for a ride. Now he's escalating that war and holding some shady elections to tighten his grip on Ukrainian territory. But the concept is quite ridiculous because they are not even hiding how sham this vote really is.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They said that they're going to send a pretty heavy military presence to ensure peace and stability, but really it is a tactic of intimidation. Putin's escalation, coming up on Today Explained.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They say they'll even let you know when arrivals from your favorite designers are in or when something you've been eyeing is back in stock. You can find inspiration for your personal style every day at Saks Fifth Avenue.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Support for the show comes from Charles Schwab. At Schwab, how you invest is your choice, not theirs. That's why when it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices. You can invest and trade on your own. Plus, get advice and more comprehensive wealth solutions to help meet your unique needs.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: With award-winning service, low costs, and transparent advice, you can manage your wealth your way at Schwab. Visit schwab.com to learn more.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today explained Sean Ramos firm and it was just like a dozen days ago when we had Mary Alushna from the Washington Post on the show in an episode titled is ukraine winning now ukraine had just staged this wildly successful counter-offensive russians were talking smack about Putin's strategy.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Maybe Putin heard the show. He probably did. And last week, he definitely took action. And he threw in a lot of wrenches, not only to Russians domestically, but in terms of the entire conflict and for a lot of international leaders who are watching this closely.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So a lot of Russians, last Wednesday, they woke up to see their worst fears materialize, and that is the mobilization in the country.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I think it is necessary to support the proposal of the Ministry of Defense and the general staff to conduct a partial military mobilization in Russia. I repeat, we are only talking about a partial mobilization.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Which basically means it's not the entire country that is set on the warpath, so not like the whole economy, all the industries working towards this. But that means that a lot of men are getting drafted, called up and sent to the trenches.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So Russian officials have said they're looking to get up to 300,000 people, but there's concern that it might be more because there are reports of people being round up in the far eastern regions of Russia and in some small settlements.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So there is definitely fear that the number will be much higher than that.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And another thing that he did, he threatened to use nuclear weapons if he decides that West has crossed another line in the war in Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapons systems available to us.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This is not a bluff. It's not the first time we are hearing from him that he is inclined to do something as radical as this, but obviously it's not something we can just not pay attention to.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Whatever you believe, that should make your blood run cold.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Let's start with the reserves. Who are these people that are getting called up?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So for now, we're seeing that it's mostly people who have some sort of previous military experience.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They probably served in the army. They probably have maybe a junior military rank, but they do have a rank.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They are usually under 35 years old, although there are reports of people who are older than that being also handed these mobilization notices.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And a lot of these people, despite the fact that they have some military experience, that doesn't necessarily mean they've ever been in combat.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They might have just served somewhere. They have some profession that is very technical and very important for the Russian front lines because they don't have enough people with that specific skill set.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But, you know, they are routing up a lot of younger men who not necessarily want to go to war.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And how does this differ from who's currently fighting this war in Ukraine?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So Russia went in with about 100,000, 150,000 people. And those are people who are contract soldiers who signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry to be at military bases to serve and sort of be on standby.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And now this effort is wider. So these are people who are not currently in the army.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They might have a contract that is slightly different with the Defense Ministry that they are in reserve so that they can be technically called up in case of a conflict.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But they're not actively on duty at all times like the other people.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So it's just targeting more groups of Russians.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Two weeks ago, we were talking about how Putin was finally starting to see opposition at home, political opposition from the political apparatus in Russia, opposition from critics.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: How are people reacting now that he's calling on rank-and-file reservists to fight this war?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: There's quite a bit of anxiety and in some cases a lot of panic because what we've seen happen is people trying to get out of the country, people seeking legal help to sign up for maybe alternative service or to find legal ways to just avoid this call up and just not take part in this.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I feel that not really many lots of Russian people want to fight and want to be mobilized and want to go to the army
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: There are worried mothers and wives who are sending their children or husbands away from the country while trying to pack as much stuff they can possibly have to move abroad.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: All the flights are sold out from people in big cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, especially the entire last week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: On each day, any direct flight to a visa-free destination country that still allows Russians to come in, they were sold out.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I am monitoring a lot of group chats, you know, these telegram channels that are giving live updates from various borders where Russians are crossing, how long the lines are, what did they ask, did they let you out?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So there's a huge effort for people to kind of mobilize in a different way to avoid this mobilization.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And the very same day Vladimir Putin announced this general mobilization, we've seen people take to the streets and protest against this.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: As people took to the streets against the call-up, hundreds were detained in dozens of cities from St. Petersburg to Siberia.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Which is quite remarkable, just given that any sort of dissent, any sort of public criticism of the war and of the authorities has been essentially criminalized in Russia and people who do protest or speak out somehow, they are facing fines, sometimes long jail terms, and it's essentially much, much harder to protest.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So while these demonstrations, you know, on Wednesday, for example, were not as big as we've seen maybe 10 years ago when tens of thousands of people marched across Moscow against Putin's re-election, it is still the biggest outpouring of public discontent since the beginning of the war.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Do we have any idea if Vladimir Putin will get his 300,000 reservists?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I think he will. I think he might even get more than that because Russia, what Russia has is a really big administrative resource.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: If you look at the general numbers of per capita, how many people serve in law enforcement, police, military commissariats, and so on and so forth, they have enough people to see this through.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And also, one other thing we can't really forget is that Russia, just the day before they announced this mobilization, made it really difficult for people to avoid military service.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So they passed a bunch of amendments to the law, which has basically two purposes.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: For people who are already on the front lines fighting in Ukraine, they get really big criminal punishments if they try to leave the service or try to give up and go captive to Ukraine or something like that, because that has been happening.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And there was a big problem for Russia because people were trying to, like, get out.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And second purpose of these amendments is also to ensure this mobilization is very difficult for people to avoid.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So they don't really have much leeway. Once you have the summons, you have to go because otherwise you can be jailed.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So what will this mobilization mean for the war effort?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Do we have any idea how much 300,000 plus reservists tips the scales in Putin's favor or not?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Even people who are independent military analysts and also pro-Kremlin, pro-war bloggers and correspondents, some of them have agreed on one thing, that it doesn't necessarily mean that if you bring 300,000 people to the front lines, it's going to tip the scale a lot.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Because first of all, morale is a big issue here because these people are not, they don't feel like they have to do it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They don't feel that they are ideologically all out and are supposed to go and do and fight and kill people.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And second of all is that military experience and whether they've actually served in the actual armed forces, whether they have some theoretical knowledge of combat, but not necessarily any real knowledge and capability.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And another thing is equipment, because we know that Russia has already struggled to provide with enough equipment and enough personal gear to people who are already fighting in Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So to ensure that all these 300,000 people will have enough, even helmets and vests and enough ammunition and enough guns, enough heavier hardware is, again, a really, really big question.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And another thing on top of all of that that we have to keep in mind is that military, actual military training they're going to get is a big question.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Some of the people I spoke to say it's going to be only two weeks, which is really not enough.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: For some people who even, okay, even if they had combat experience, some of them fought in the Chechen war.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So that is way over a decade ago.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: These people are much older now, and they have not been in battle for a really long time.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And warfare does change over the years.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So whether they will be, you know, to fight on par, even with themselves 20 years ago, is a big question.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And if they're not, there's always the nukes? Or is that just a big bluff?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Well, everyone hopes it's a bluff.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But Putin said in his speech that it's not a bluff.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He directly said, This is not a bluff. Classic bluffing move. This is not a bluff. This is not a bluff.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So he is very well known for ratcheting up the rhetoric, and he's not known for backing down, right?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So he obviously tries to tell Ukraine and tell the Western community that is supporting Ukraine that the stakes are really high and he's prepared to go all out.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He's not backing down and try to scare them and see who blinks first.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And another concerning thing here is obviously the timing, because winter is approaching, so it's going to be much harder for both sides to fight.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And Putin is betting that winter will wear out Western support for Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But also the referendums that he has announced.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So what they're trying to do is use this as a pretext to annex four regions in eastern Ukraine that they have partially occupied.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And once that happens, what's probably going to be Putin's line and Kremlin's line is that these are now the territories of the Russian Federation.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So any attack on these areas will be met with even more force and even more, you know, a severe response.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: More with Mary in a minute on Today Explained.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine say they'll hold referendums on joining Russia this week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kiev is calling the move a sham.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's also been heavily criticized by the United States.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained here with Mary Alushna.
--:-- Mary Alushna: So last Friday, Moscow went ahead with their plans to hold referendums in four occupied territories, that is Donetsk-Luhansk.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Parts of those are controlled by the separatists and have been controlled for about eight years since the annexation of Crimea and everything that unfolded afterwards.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But also Zaporizhia and Kherson, which before the February 24th invasion were completely under the control of the Ukrainian government.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Russia is claiming its troops have taken control of one city called Kherson.
--:-- Mary Alushna: It's a port city on the Black Sea.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Ukrainian officials are warning that the situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power station is approaching critical.
--:-- Mary Alushna: That's where Russia seized Europe's largest nuclear plant in early March.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Ukraine says Russia has targeted the parts of the plant that send electricity to Ukraine and is now diverting the power to the Russian grid.
--:-- Mary Alushna: So Russia is trying to, you know, grab these lands, even though it's holding in some places just bits of land here and there.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But the concept is quite ridiculous because they are not even hiding how sham this vote really is because there is no observers.
--:-- Mary Alushna: There is immense pressure because those lands are occupied.
--:-- Mary Alushna: So there is military there.
--:-- Mary Alushna: They said that they're going to send a pretty heavy military presence to ensure peace and stability and sort of security in those areas.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But really, it is a tactic of intimidation.
--:-- Mary Alushna: So there is obviously no hope that they will be fair elections.
--:-- Mary Alushna: And even if you can call it elections.
--:-- Mary Alushna: And even before all these referendums started, most of Western countries have said that they will not recognize them as valid in any way.
--:-- Mary Alushna: We know that these referenda will be manipulated.
--:-- Mary Alushna: We know that Russia will use the sham referenda as a basis to purportedly annex these territories either now or in the future.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Let me be clear. If this does transpire, the United States will never recognize Russia's claims to any purportedly annexed parts of Ukraine.
--:-- Mary Alushna: So if Ukraine certainly won't be looking at these elections as legitimate and the rest of the world won't either, why hold them?
--:-- Mary Alushna: Well, you know, for Putin, this is a, you know, bureaucratic pretense to claim them as their own and say that, you know, now he can use tougher, worse weapons that he's been using before.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But also it is a way to ratchet up some public support because he needs to claim some wins in this war.
--:-- Mary Alushna: And there have not been many.
--:-- Mary Alushna: And he has recently finally kind of formed this whole purpose of this operation.
--:-- Mary Alushna: He said, like, we want to liberate those areas because we consider them Russian because they're Russian-speaking people there.
--:-- Mary Alushna: We cannot, we have no moral right to hand over our loved ones to the executioners.
--:-- Mary Alushna: We cannot fail to respond to their sincere desire to determine their own fate.
--:-- Mary Alushna: He wants to present it as to the Russian general public, like, look, we've brought these people home.
--:-- Mary Alushna: And that's the whole concept that him and all the Kremlin and state TV propagandists have been saying.
--:-- Mary Alushna: We are bringing Russian people home and we want to unite them all under the Russian motherland.
--:-- Mary Alushna: I want to point out, we know that the majority of the people living in the territories freed from neo-Nazis, these are in the first place historical Novorossiya land, do not want to be under the heel of the neo-Nazi regime.
--:-- Mary Alushna: So there are kind of two streams here, but public support is also one that is really, really important.
--:-- Mary Alushna: How do people in these regions where these referenda are being held see themselves as Russians, as Ukrainians, both?
--:-- Mary Alushna: Are they actually going to buy into Putin's messaging here?
--:-- Mary Alushna: Well, from what we know, there was a pretty big propaganda effort in those areas, in schools and sort of educational facilities for really young children.
--:-- Mary Alushna: They brought books that say that Russia is, you know, their real homeland and that Ukraine is not a real country and all of these things.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But some of this propaganda is really, really blunt and not sophisticated in any way.
--:-- Mary Alushna: So I'm not sure that a lot of people are buying into this.
--:-- Mary Alushna: There are obviously Russian-speaking people in those areas.
--:-- Mary Alushna: It's, you know, Eastern Ukraine.
--:-- Mary Alushna: They're very close to the Russian border.
--:-- Mary Alushna: And there's a lot of family ties and friendly ties and historic ties that, you know, tie this whole territory together
--:-- Mary Alushna: But that does not mean that they see themselves as part of Soviet Russia
--:-- Mary Alushna: They are supporters of Russia Russia in Luhansk and Donetsk I say probably more than in and Kherson although in those areas there are also known people who have collaborated with Russia and sort of joined their side.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But a lot of these people were really disenchanted with Russian recent retreat from the area because what Russians have promised them, that was even an official slogan, is that Russia is here forever.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But that ended really quickly in September when Russia was forced to retreat from a lot of areas in Zaporizhia and Kharkiv area, for example.
--:-- Mary Alushna: So Russia is moving ahead with this really, really quickly because they're feeling that they're running out of time and they're losing this some like small bits of trust from people who are still in those areas and are supportive of Russia.
--:-- Mary Alushna: And also because they're suffering strategic losses.
--:-- Mary Alushna: So these elections don't close until Tuesday, and I suppose we won't know that Russia won this referendum until Tuesday.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But if that is the outcome that we should presume, what happens next?
--:-- Mary Alushna: What does it mean for the war?
--:-- Mary Alushna: Probably right. The vote is going to be overwhelmingly supportive of joining Russia.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But the fear is that once they do join the Russian Federation officially in the eyes of Russian law, we've heard that publicly from some of the officials saying that the Russian armed forces will be reinforcing those areas means like all these reservists will probably go in to hold these territories, to try to control these territories more.
--:-- Mary Alushna: You know, obviously will publicly claim that they've achieved this remarkable goal of liberating all those areas, even though they don't really fully control all of these regions fully on the ground.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But most importantly for the war and specifically for Ukraine, the Ukrainian goal and Zelensky's goal has for a long time been to bring the borders back to what they were before the invasion, before February 24th.
--:-- Mary Alushna: And we have no choice but to defend ourselves.
--:-- Mary Alushna: We do it. We push the aggressor beyond the internationally recognized border of the Ukrainian state.
--:-- Mary Alushna: They have obviously been more inspired and more motivated after they had some really remarkable wins and gains in recent weeks and months.
--:-- Mary Alushna: They are really hopeful that West will supply them with more weapons, with some heavier weapons that will allow them to continue their offensive operations in some of these occupied areas.
--:-- Mary Alushna: For us, this is a war for life.
--:-- Mary Alushna: That is why we need defense support, weapons, military equipment and shells.
--:-- Mary Alushna: All in all, I've been noticing two main avenues of thought.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Whether Putin is trying to step everything up to potentially go in negotiations at some point and have like an upper hand to try to, you know, get more than he would have initially gained.
--:-- Mary Alushna: If he didn't call for mobilization, if he didn't, you know, take all these annexed lands and so on and so forth.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Or he completely lost the plot and just wants to nuke, take the land and, you know, try to gain as much Ukrainian land as possible.
--:-- Mary Alushna: He doesn't care about losses, deaths or any strategic goals anymore because he just wants to get this done.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine say they'll hold referendums on joining Russia this week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kiev is calling the move a sham.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's also been heavily criticized by the United States.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained here with Mary Alushna.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Mary, tell us more about this referendum that's being held right now in Russian-held territories of Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What is going on?
--:-- Mary Alushna: So last Friday, Moscow went ahead with their plans to hold referendums in four occupied territories, that is Donetsk-Luhansk.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Parts of those are controlled by the separatists and have been controlled for about eight years since the annexation of Crimea and everything that unfolded afterwards.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But also Zaporizhia and Kherson, which before the February 24th invasion were completely under the control of the Ukrainian government.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine say they'll hold referendums on joining Russia this week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kiev is calling the move a sham.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's also been heavily criticized by the United States.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained here with Mary Alushna.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Mary, tell us more about this referendum that's being held right now in Russian-held territories of Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What is going on?
--:-- Mary Alushna: So last Friday, Moscow went ahead with their plans to hold referendums in four occupied territories, that is Donetsk-Luhansk.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Parts of those are controlled by the separatists and have been controlled for about eight years since the annexation of Crimea and everything that unfolded afterwards.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But also Zaporizhia and Kherson, which before the February 24th invasion were completely under the control of the Ukrainian government.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine say they'll hold referendums on joining Russia this week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kiev is calling the move a sham.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's also been heavily criticized by the United States.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained here with Mary Alushna.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Mary, tell us more about this referendum that's being held right now in Russian-held territories of Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What is going on?
--:-- Mary Alushna: So last Friday, Moscow went ahead with their plans to hold referendums in four occupied territories, that is Donetsk-Luhansk.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Parts of those are controlled by the separatists and have been controlled for about eight years since the annexation of Crimea and everything that unfolded afterwards.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But also Zaporizhia and Kherson, which before the February 24th invasion were completely under the control of the Ukrainian government.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine say they'll hold referendums on joining Russia this week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kiev is calling the move a sham.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's also been heavily criticized by the United States.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained here with Mary Alushna.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Mary, tell us more about this referendum that's being held right now in Russian-held territories of Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What is going on?
--:-- Mary Alushna: So last Friday, Moscow went ahead with their plans to hold referendums in four occupied territories, that is Donetsk-Luhansk.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Parts of those are controlled by the separatists and have been controlled for about eight years since the annexation of Crimea and everything that unfolded afterwards.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But also Zaporizhia and Kherson, which before the February 24th invasion were completely under the control of the Ukrainian government.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine say they'll hold referendums on joining Russia this week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kiev is calling the move a sham.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's also been heavily criticized by the United States.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained here with Mary Alushna.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Mary, tell us more about this referendum that's being held right now in Russian-held territories of Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What is going on?
--:-- Mary Alushna: So last Friday, Moscow went ahead with their plans to hold referendums in four occupied territories, that is Donetsk-Luhansk.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Parts of those are controlled by the separatists and have been controlled for about eight years since the annexation of Crimea and everything that unfolded afterwards.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But also Zaporizhia and Kherson, which before the February 24th invasion were completely under the control of the Ukrainian government.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine say they'll hold referendums on joining Russia this week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kiev is calling the move a sham.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's also been heavily criticized by the United States.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained here with Mary Alushna.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Mary, tell us more about this referendum that's being held right now in Russian-held territories of Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What is going on?
--:-- Mary Alushna: So last Friday, Moscow went ahead with their plans to hold referendums in four occupied territories, that is Donetsk-Luhansk.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Parts of those are controlled by the separatists and have been controlled for about eight years since the annexation of Crimea and everything that unfolded afterwards.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But also Zaporizhia and Kherson, which before the February 24th invasion were completely under the control of the Ukrainian government.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine say they'll hold referendums on joining Russia this week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kiev is calling the move a sham.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's also been heavily criticized by the United States.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained here with Mary Alushna.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Mary, tell us more about this referendum that's being held right now in Russian-held territories of Ukraine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What is going on?
--:-- Mary Alushna: So last Friday, Moscow went ahead with their plans to hold referendums in four occupied territories, that is Donetsk-Luhansk.
--:-- Mary Alushna: Parts of those are controlled by the separatists and have been controlled for about eight years since the annexation of Crimea and everything that unfolded afterwards.
--:-- Mary Alushna: But also Zaporizhia and Kherson, which before the February 24th invasion were completely under the control of the Ukrainian government.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine say they'll hold referendums on joining Russia this week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kiev is calling the move a sham.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's also been heavily criticized by the United States.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained here with Mary Alushna.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Mary, tell us more about this referendum that's being held right now in Russian-held territories of Ukraine.
