Invaders forcing people in Melitopol to ‘vote’ for relatives and neighbors in sham referendum
Residents of Melitopol are trying to ignore sham referendum (Photo:inform.zp.ua)
Russian invasion forces are forcing people in occupied Melitopol to "vote" for their relatives and neighbors in a pseudo-referendum the mayor of the Zaporizhzhya Oblast city, Ivan Fedorov, wrote on his Telegram channel on Sept. 26.
Fedorov said that due to the catastrophically low turnout of "voters", members of the occupation election commissions in Melitopol had begun repeating door-to-door visits.
“The small part of the city's population who opened their doors to the impostors are forced to vote for absent family members and neighbors, and those who were evacuated from the occupied area,” Fedorov said.
The mayor added that guns and threats are used, so the enemy could "create" at least some semblance of a turnout at the pseudo-referendum.
Russia announced that a so-called “referendum” will be held across occupied Ukrainian Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson oblasts on Sept. 23-27, in an attempt to legitimize its seizure of Ukrainian territory. Russia exerts control only over parts of these regions, while the provincial capital of Zaporizhzhya Oblast remains in Ukrainian hands.
Ukraine and the vast majority of Western countries have declared that the results of pseudo-referendums will not be recognized. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also stressed that holding a fake vote and an attempt to annex Ukrainian territories would not stop their liberation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
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