Russian puppets in Zaporizhzhya Oblast announce sham referendum
The date of the fake vote has not yet been set by the occupiers (Photo:REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
Russia-installed “authorities” have officially announced a sham “referendum” in occupied areas of Zaporizhzhya Oblast in an attempt to legitimize the region’s “reuniting” with Russia, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on Aug. 8.
The decision was made during an illegal council meeting in occupied Melitopol.
“All present raised their hands unanimously,” the message said, describing the simulated voting.
The date for the sham poll has not yet been chosen at this time, however.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitriy Peskov denied Moscow was behind any referendums in occupied Ukrainian territories, suggesting instead that “locals” are responsible for setting those up.
“We’re not the ones holding the ‘referendum’; we need to be clear whom (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy is addressing in this announcement,” Peskov told Russian news media, commenting on Zelenskyy’s warning that sham “referendums” in occupied parts of Ukraine would scuttle any potential Kyiv-Moscow talks.
In fact, in 2014, at the beginning of its war and invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin organized sham referendums in Ukraine’s Crimea and the Russian occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
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