German Chancellor: Referendums Will not Change Germany's Stance on Ukrainian Regions

Berlin, September 28 (QNA) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that his country's stance towards the Ukrainian territories where Russia held referendums over the last few days will not change.
"We will not accept the results of these sham referendums, and our support for Ukraine will continue undiminished," Scholz told the Neue Osnabr cker Zeitung's Wednesday edition.
Moscow has been holding referendums in four Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya to justify annexing them to the Russian Federation.
Addressing the issue of arms deliveries to Ukraine, Scholz said that Ukraine would immediately receive operational Soviet-designed battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles from other NATO countries, whose stocks would then be gradually replenished by Germany and others with Western equipment in a so-called circular swap, according to the German news agency (dpa).
"Germany is supporting Ukraine to the best of its ability and at the same time doing everything it can to prevent a direct conflict between NATO and Russia," the chancellor said. He added that this was also in line with the wishes of the majority of Germany's citizens.
The leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial countries condemned Russia's referendums to annex the territories it controls in Ukraine, calling on all countries to reject them categorically. The said that they will not recognize these "illegal" votes, as they described, nor the results.
For his part, US President Joe Biden "The United States will never recognize Ukrainian territory as anything other than part of Ukraine. Russia's referenda are a sham a false pretext to try to annex parts of Ukraine by force in flagrant violation of international law, including the United Nations Charter." In the same context the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) affirmed the alliance's intensification of aid to Ukraine in response to the "sham" referendums held by Russia in four Ukrainian regions. (QNA)