KYIV. UkraineGate . 24 . September . 2022 | Political News .
Oleksandr Starukh, the head of Zaporizhzhya OVA, said that all attempts by the occupiers to call their actions in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine a “referendum” are worthless. He called on citizens to change their place of residence for these days or leave for free Ukrainian lands .
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According to the head of Zaporizhzhya OVA, three quarters of the population of the temporarily occupied territories have left either for free Ukrainian lands or abroad.
“That means it will be impossible even mathematically to prove that the majority of the population voted. There are no physical people there,” he said.
Starukh emphasizes that there are no laws on local referendums in either Ukrainian or Russian legislation. In addition, he adds, due to the low turnout for pseudo-referendums, collaborators go around homes accompanied by armed soldiers and force people to put a mark “under the muzzles of machine guns.”
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“Therefore, the result of the pseudo-referendum is quite clear – Russian propaganda will announce fake numbers, which the Kremlin will use for further manipulations. We have a very clear position regarding such actions of the occupiers: this is nothing more than a special information operation, which should legalize the seizure of Ukrainian territories by Russian troops , as well as give the occupiers the formal right to mobilize men from the occupied Ukrainian lands into the Russian army. There is nothing new here: we already saw all this in 2014 in Crimea and Donbas,” Starukh stated.
The head of Zaporizhzhya OVA appealed to residents who are under temporary occupation to avoid participation in pseudo-referendums and to change their place of residence or leave for controlled territories.
In order to get more votes, the occupiers in the Kherson region force people to “vote” in the second round, or take several ballots and “vote” for everyone in the family.
In Luhansk region, the invaders force them to “vote” under the muzzles of machine guns , and those who disagree are put on a separate list.
Source: Ukrgate
