SVT's foreign reporters on the Russian annexation: Moving towards a more intense war

The annexation concerns the areas where Russia held illegal referendums this weekend - Luhansk and Donetsk in the east and parts of the Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions in the south.

Russia currently occupies these regions, but as for parts of these areas, relatively large parts are still under Ukrainian control, including the cities of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson themselves. 

According to SVT's foreign correspondent Bert Sundström, who is in Moscow, it is reasonable to assume that the war after the annexation will become even more intense. 

- Russia will claim that it is Ukraine that is at war with Russia with NATO behind it, he says.

This may mean that Russia feels that they are given a moral right to deploy greater forces.

It is in light of this that the mobilization is taking place and as Putin has hinted that targeted nuclear weapons may become relevant.

But Sundström considers the latter to be unlikely.

Crisis meeting in Ukraine with the Defense Council

Most likely, today's ceremony will take place in Red Square in Moscow at 14:00 where President Putin will sign documents making the affected areas part of Russian territory.

On the occasion of the so-called "referendums", the President of Ukraine has called a crisis meeting with the country's National Defense Council.

Depending on what is said at this meeting, military activity in the occupied territories may be escalated further in the future.

- The annexations do not change how Ukraine views these areas and there is nothing to indicate that it has affected the ongoing counter-offensive, says SVT's foreign reporter Gilda Hamidi-Nia, who is in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

- President Zelensky has said that they will continue until they liberate all of Ukraine, she says.

Difficult to measure support in the region

What support there actually is for the Russian regime in the annexed areas is, according to Bert Sundström, almost impossible to get a real insight into. Since Russia occupied the area eight years ago, most residents who want to belong to Ukraine have had to flee the region.

According to him, the fact that control is also sought in the southern parts of the country means that they want to have control at the Black Sea and safe passages on land.

- By having control there, you can secure a land route through the areas to the Crimean Peninsula, which is why these areas are important, says Bert Sundström.