On the evening of September 27, pro-russian collaborators from the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk and Luhansk regions will report on the completion of the “nationwide demonstration of will”, which in Ukraine is called nothing else than the “pseudo-referendum regarding the annexation of Ukrainian territories”. At the same time, absolutely incredible numbers of voting “for” were “painted”:
Kherson region – 87.05%;
Zaporizhzhia region – 93.11%;
Luhansk region – 98.42%;
Donetsk region – 99.23%.
Collaborators even invented a universal justification for such indicators: as if all local supporters of the territorial integrity of Ukraine left the occupied territories at the beginning of the “special military operation”, instead, only “patriots of russia” remained in the occupied cities, and they voted almost unanimously.
But is everything so clear? Of course no! Since such a propagandistic thesis is completely manipulative. Therefore, here are some examples of how the “voting” actually took place:
In Kherson Oblast, the occupiers practiced family “voting”. That is, if there was only one family member at home, he was “asked” to take several ballots and “vote” for everyone.
In the temporarily occupied Energodar, russian occupiers went around the apartments with weapons to force people to take part in the “referendum”.
In Kakhovka, the occupiers went around houses and persistently suggested that residents vote, and for the “necessary” mark in the ballot they gave a monetary reward.
In the occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region, residents were forced to vote in a “referendum” by threatening them with weapons and mobilization.
And russian mass media reported that voting in “referendums” continues in all regions of russia, so residents of the occupied regions can take part in “voting” on the territory of the russian federation.
At the same time, the occupiers tried to legitimize the holding of pseudo-referendums and their results before the world community. For this, they used all the available disinformation tools, starting with “international observers”, who turned out to be russian functionaries of not the first kind, ending with the speech of russia’s ambassador to the UN, v. nebenzya, at a meeting of the UN Security Council, who stated:
“I know that our former Western partners will not hear us, or rather, they will pretend that they did not hear us, but I will say that the referendums were held in conditions of exceptional transparency and in full compliance with all election norms. This is an undeniable fact, no matter how much the Kyiv regime and its patrons try to assert the opposite.”
However, the kremlin’s disinformation and manipulation did not work and the sham “vote” was almost unanimously condemned by the vast majority of the world community.
As for the consequences of pseudo-referendums for Ukraine, it is not worth talking about them. The leaders of our state do not recognize such a “manifestation of will”, calling it worthless, that is, one that does not lead to any legal consequences for the temporarily occupied territories.
As for the propaganda sector, the kremlin media will repeatedly appeal to the “results” of the so-called referendums, questioning the very fact of Ukraine’s existence as a unitary and sovereign state.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine will put all the dots over the “i” in the issue of pseudo-referendums.
