Citing US intelligence, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Russia is already laying the groundwork for annexation. Occupied regions of Ukraine could hold "sham" referenda on joining Russia as soon as September, he said. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after a referendum which was widely viewed as illegitimate. "We want to make it plain to the American people," Mr Kirby told reporters. "Nobody is fooled by it. [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is dusting off the playbook from 2014." He accused Russia of installing illegitimate pro-Russian officials to run occupied regions of Ukraine, with the aim of organising referenda on becoming part of Russia.
The results of the votes would be used by Russia "to try to claim annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory", Mr Kirby said. Russia has already installed its own regional and local officials in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied. Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 after a hastily-organised referendum - viewed as illegal by the international community, in which voters chose to join Russia.
Many supporters of Kyiv boycotted the vote and the campaign was neither free nor fair. Similar votes held in other parts of Ukraine would almost certainly see a similar situation, with any opposition to joining Russia largely suppressed. Mr Kirby said he was "exposing" the Russian plans "so the world knows that any purported annexation is premeditated, illegal and illegitimate", and promised there would be a quick response from the US and its allies. The areas targeted for annexation include Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk, he said.
Volodymyr Horbenko is the latest official to lose his job after Mr Zelensky said bosses failed to root out pro-Russian elements in the agency. Regional chiefs in several other cities were also dismissed, Mr Zelensky said. It comes as MPs voted to dismiss SBU chief Ivan Bakanov and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. On Monday, an adviser to Mr Zelensky suggested that the pair had merely been suspended pending an investigation after the president initially appeared to sack them in a late-night address.
But, on Tuesday the Ukrainian leader laid down a motion of no-confidence in the pair before parliament, which was approved by an overwhelming majority of MPs. There have been reports for several weeks that Mr Zelensky wanted to replace Mr Bakanov after coming to blame him for failures in stopping the Russian advance in February. Neither of the top officials, both of whom Mr Zelensky personally appointed, are accused of betraying their country.
But, they ran agencies where Russian interference appears to have impacted Ukraine's ability to hold territory in the opening days of the war. Speaking after the vote, the leader of Mr Zelensky's Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia, said new information had recently come to light, and the purge of the SBU would continue in the coming days. "There will be many 'cleanses', because over the years many residents of the Russian special services have secretly entrenched themselves within the walls of the SBU, unfortunately," Mr Arakhamia said, adding: "They got access to materials that they didn't have before." On Sunday, Mr Zelensky said over 60 former SBU and prosecutor's office employees were now working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied areas. Mr Bakanov's deputy, Vasyl Malyuk, was announced as the acting head of the SBU in a decree posted to the presidential website on Thursday.
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