MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Tuesday that there were “many” people living in Ukraine’s southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv who wanted to “link their fate to Russia” but were afraid to speak out.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, responding to a hypothetical question about what would happen if people in those regions were allowed to vote on whether to become part of Russia, provided no evidence in support of his statement.
Russia has been deliberately vague about the extent of its territorial ambitions in Ukraine. It says it went to war there in 2022 in part to defend Russian-speakers from oppression – an argument rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies as bogus.
Moscow declared in 2022 that four regions of Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – were now part of Russian territory, after holding referendums that were denounced by Kyiv and Western countries as illegal and coercive.
Any official statements suggesting that Moscow sees pro-Russian support in other parts of the country are therefore of potential concern to Ukraine.
“Definitely, in both Odesa and Mykolaiv, there are many who would certainly like to link their fate to Russia,” Peskov told reporters.
“These people are unlikely to be able to raise their voices in favour of this now; it would be simply life-threatening,” he added.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Peskov’s statement.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukrainian cities and towns including Odesa and Mykolaiv with missiles and drones in the course of the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, including many civilians. Moscow denies targeting civilians.
Russia is still far from controlling all of the four regions it claimed in 2022. But nationalists, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, have periodically said it should eventually push much deeper into Ukraine and capture areas including Mykolaiv and Odesa, a major port on the Black Sea.
Taking Mykolaiv and Odesa in addition to the other regions claimed by Russia would deprive Ukraine of any Black Sea coastline, turning it into a greatly reduced, landlocked state. Russia previously annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Replying to a separate question, Peskov said Europe would be better off seeking dialogue with Russia about security issues rather than looking to build a “drone wall”.
European countries are looking to strengthen their defences after drone incidents last week that forced the temporary closure of airports in Denmark and Norway.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Anastasia TeterevlevaEditing by Gareth Jones)
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