Zelenskyy warns citizens against giving personal info to Russians as Moscow looks to extend campaign southwest

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday warned residents in areas to the south and west of Donetsk towards offering private info to Russian troopers.

“I urge the residents of the southern areas of Ukraine – Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas – to be very cautious about what info you present to the invaders,” he mentioned in an handle.  “In the event that they ask you to fill out some questionnaires…you must know this isn’t that will help you.”

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Zelesnkyy mentioned Russian troops could also be amassing passport information below the guise of finishing a “census” of residents within the areas to ship humanitarian support.

“That is aimed to falsify the so-called referendum in your land – if an order comes from Moscow to stage such a present,” he added. “That is the fact. Watch out.”

Zelenskyy’s warning got here simply hours after Russian Normal Minnekaev informed Russian information businesses that Moscow’s goal was to ascertain “full management” of not solely the japanese Donbas space, however southern areas that run alongside the Black Sea.

An armed serviceman of Donetsk Folks’s Republic militia patrols a road in an space managed by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, has been besieged by Russian troops and forces from self-proclaimed separatist areas in japanese Ukraine for greater than six weeks. 
(AP Photograph/Alexei Alexandrov)

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Zaporizhzhia, which sits immediately west of Donetsk above the Sea of Azov, has develop into a vacation spot for evacuees fleeing the port metropolis of Mariupol in Donetsk.

Kherson, southwest of Zaporizhzhia, lays immediately above the Russia-occupied Crimean peninsula.

Minnekaev mentioned Russia’s aim was not solely to create a land bridge between the Donbas and occupied-Crimea, however to realize superiority over all Black Sea ports – extending its coastal entry exterior the Sea of Azov.

Zelenskyy warned that makes an attempt to annex extra areas in Ukraine won’t be tolerated and threatened extra monetary repercussions.  

This map made March 2, 2022, exhibits Russian-controlled areas in southern Ukraine.
(Fox Information)

“I need to say immediately: any ‘Kherson Folks’s Republics’ should not going to fly. If somebody needs a brand new annexation, it may well solely result in new highly effective sanctions strikes on Russia,” he mentioned.

“You’ll make your nation as poor as Russia hasn’t been for the reason that 1917 civil battle. So it’s higher to hunt peace now,” Zelenskyy added.