Presented below are the first few paragraphs of a short article on breaking news from Moscow about Russia’s war in Ukraine. Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News (which published the article this afternoon) and a longtime correspondent and investigative reporter for various news organizations in the United States and abroad. — MCM

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How the war changed overnight

By Joe Lauria | Consortium News

From Russia’s perspective, the war in Ukraine until now has been a “special military operation” intended to defend the self-declared independent republics of Luhansk and Donetsk. 

For eight years Moscow had rebuffed entreaties from Donbass to recognize those republics. Now Russia is prepared to absorb them as part of the Russian Federation itself, along with the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

Today in Moscow President Vladimir Putin announced that referenda to decide whether to join Russia would be held in those four places from this Friday until next Wednesday. After that, the Russian Duma must decide whether to accept the results and formally annex those territories into Russia. 

All that is expected to happen, and once it does the game on the battlefield will change dramatically.  From Russia’s point of view, it will no longer . . . READ MORE . . .