WASHINGTON, August 12. /TASS/. The United States will never recognize the accession of some Ukrainian regions to Russia and will respond by imposing more sanctions on Russia if it happens, a high-ranking US administration official said on Friday.
"The United States will never recognize any reported annexed territory as belonging to Russia. <…> if Russia actually proceeds with these plants, we will respond swiftly and severely with additional sanctions," he said, adding that the United States will continue military assistance to Ukraine "to help Ukraine regain this territory and keep it out of Moscow's hands."
Zaporozhye region head Yevgeny Balitsky said on Monday he had decreed to organize a referendum on the region’s accession to Russia. The Kherson region authorities also announced plans to organize a referendum on accessing Russia but its date has not yet been agreed.
Chairman of the Public Chamber of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Alexander Kofman told TASS on July 27 that a referendum on the accession to Russia may be organized in the DPR in mid-September. He said that "it would be better" to hold it on the same day when such a referendum is organized in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR).
Meanwhile, LPR head, Leonid Pasechnik, told journalists on Tuesday that a referendum on accessing to Russia can be organize in the LPR only after the liberation of the entire DPR’s territory.