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In the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhia region, the collaborators have decided not to hold a pseudo-referendum on September 11. Instead, they want to conduct a so-called survey, with people being able to vote even in Russia.
Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said this during a nationwide telethon.
“The occupiers do not want to hold a pseudo-referendum on September 11, but they want to hold it as part of a survey from September 11 to 17 and then draw conclusions. Residents of other cities and even countries will be able to participate in this pseudo-referendum. In Russia, they want to open such precincts in order to rig the vote and declare that 110% supports the Russian Federation,” the mayor said.
According to him, “Gauleiters” began to distribute Crimea-made instructions for agitators.
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“There are some subtleties in the instructions. First, a campaigning group should include a resident of Crimea who lived in Crimea before 2014 and is fluent in Ukrainian. By doing so, they want to say that no one will pressure the Ukrainian population,” Fedorov added.
However, sociological polls conducted by the occupiers themselves say that less than 10% of residents are ready to support the Russian Federation.
Two weeks ago, in the city and district, Ukrainian resistance forces began to oppose the holding of the referendum. Party headquarters were destroyed, a collaborator in Mykhailivka was killed, and the chief of the Mykhailivka pseudo-police was found hanged.
Fedorov also added that in the past few days, Ukraine’s special services have received a large number of calls from collaborators who no longer want to cooperate with the occupiers.
Earlier reports said that a pseudo-referendum on the accession of the Zaporizhia region to Russia was to be held on September 11.
Roughly two-thirds of Zaporizhzhia is under Russian occupation, part of a swathe of southern Ukraine that Moscow captured early in the war, including most of the neighbouring Kherson region, where Russian officials have also discussed plans for a referendum.
