Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region, suggested the first half of September. Senior lawmaker Leonid Slutksy once mentioned July, although it did not occur. Related Ukraine says 9,000 of its troops killed since Russia invaded While forces backed by Moscow control almost all of Luhansk, some estimates say Russia and the separatists control about 60 percent of the Donetsk region. Several weeks in, separatist leaders of the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, which the Kremlin recognized as independent states, voiced plans to hold votes on becoming part of Russia. Moscow’s plans to incorporate captured territories were clear from the outset of the Feb. … Right now, the impression is that even the Kremlin doesn’t really believe that by holding these referendums, it would draw a thick line under it.” “There will be the guerrilla movement, there will be underground resistance, there will be terrorist acts, there will be shelling.

“It is clear that the situation won’t stabilize for a long time,” even if referendums eventually are held, says Nikolai Petrov, a senior research fellow in Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Program. The city on the Dnipro River has faced relentless pounding since July 12 that has damaged some 850 buildings and sent about half its population of 100,000 fleeing. A man collects copper wires from a market that was destroyed in a Russian bombardment in Nikopol, Ukraine, on Monday.

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