British military intelligence has indicated that Russia plans to hold referendums in areas of Ukraine under its control in order to strengthen its separation from the power of the Kyiv government.

Intelligence in its daily report on the course of the Russian-Ukrainian war stated that “the statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the expansion of the scope of operations of the armed forces of his country beyond the borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to include the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions is not true.” Because Russia has not expanded the scope of its operations in Ukraine,” he said, noting that “the control of these territories in the long term was the original goal of the operation launched by Russia against Ukraine.”

She explained that “the purpose of Lavrov’s statement is to pave the way for holding referendums in the controlled regions, except for Lugansk and Donetsk,” noting that “Russia has been openly discussing the possibility of holding referendums for secession of these regions since mid-March.”

In terms of field operations, British intelligence confirmed in a statement that small-scale Russian attacks targeted the Bakhmut direction in Donbass in eastern Ukraine, but made little progress.

It is worth noting that Russia currently controls about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, including much of the east and south of the country, five months after the start of military operations in Ukraine on February 24 last year.