Russians fail to hold pseudo-referendum on temporarily occupied territories - Ukraine's defense ministry

Ukraine’s defense ministry shared an update about this in Telegram.

"Today, Russia is stepping up its activities aimed at the socio-economic and political integration of the temporarily occupied territories into the Russian Federation. We know that Russia is solving its food and demographic problems using Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories. We also know that they are preparing to determine the exact places to commence the mentioned referendums. So Russia is not abandoning these plans, despite the fact that it has not succeeded yet. They have failed because the Ukrainian state is fighting the occupation forces with various methods that we cannot publicly disclose. Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied territories are also resisting," Malyar said.

It is known that the occupied territories are visited by Russian authorities’ representatives, in particular, central and regional governments’ authorities. The occupants are trying to implement the 2014 scenarios with the Crimea and Donbas Autonomous Republics. The Russians are still determining the specific venues of the "referendums".

"The socio-economic situation in these areas is becoming more complicated. The occupants continue to engage in barbaric activities in the temporarily occupied territories, using terror tactics against the Ukrainian population," adds Anna Malyar.