WASHINGTON, August 12. /TASS/. The US believes that if Russia incorporated some Ukrainian regions that would make a diplomatic solution for the conflict harder to reach, a high-ranking US official said in a conference call with reporters on Friday.
"Clearly, as you point out, the prospects for a diplomatic outcome are going to be much harder if Russia unilaterally is conquering and trying to annex territory," he said. "That's another reason that I think Moscow should hesitate to do this."
"We and President [of Ukraine Vladimir] Zelensky has said himself, that negotiations are going to be necessary to end this conflict. They are going to be much harder if Russia is taking illegal and illegitimate actions," the official said.
He repeatedly signaled that the US wouldn’t recognize those territories as belonging to Russia.
Head of the Zaporozhye Region’s military-civilian administration Yevgeny Balitsky said at the forum We Are Together With Russia on Monday that he had signed a decree to hold a referendum on the region's accession to Russia. Kherson Region authorities have also said they wanted to hold a referendum to join Russia but they haven’t chosen a date yet. Alexander Kofman, chairman of the DPR’s Public Chamber, said on July 27 that the DPR referendum to join Russia could be held in the middle of September. He said it would be best to hold it on the same day that the LPR will hold its referendum on the same issue. LPR head Leonid Pasechnik on Tuesday told reporters that the LPR would hold a referendum to join Russia only when the DPR is liberated.
On February 24 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country. The West retaliated to the Russian decision by imposing sweeping sanctions on the country. Also, Western countries started shipments of weapons to Kiev, which by now are worth billions of dollars. Some Western politicians have described the situation as an economic war on Russia. Putin said on March 16 that Western sanctions bear the signs of an aggression and the West pursues a long-term policy of containing Russia.