DISINFO: Inhabitants of Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts want freely join with Russia
SUMMARY
There are no Russian soldiers pointing guns at the inhabitants of Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts to force them to vote in the referendum. These people do not want to live with Kyiv, which bombs and massacres them, but with Russia that help them.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the invasion of Ukraine which aims to manipulate public opinion about the annexation of Ukrainian territories.
The occupation administration of the territories in Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhia oblasts claimed that these regions will join Russian Federation and that the decision will be taken on a referendum organised by the occupation administration. Such referenda are considered illegitimate by Ukrainian and international law. Article 4 of the UN Charter reads:
"All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."
In these so called "referenda", voters are coerced into voting with armed soldiers going door to door to collect votes. Individuals are not allowed to vote, as there is only one vote allowed per household. Voters do not need any form of identification in order to cast a vote.
Other examples of coersion: Armed soldiers going door-to-door in occupied parts of the country to collect votes for "referenda" on joining Russia. "You have to answer verbally and the soldier marks the answer on the sheet and keeps it," one woman in Enerhodar told the BBC.
"Today, so-called “authorities”, appointed illegitimately by Russia in the territories of Ukraine it militarily occupies, announced preparations for illegal “referenda”. This is Russia’s attempt to legitimise its illegal military control and aims to forcibly change Ukraine’s borders in clear violation of the UN Charter and Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
It is impossible to establish how many people will support the referendum. There is no independent opinion polls on occupied territories. Many residents of these oblasts left the region after occupation.
Ukrainians who are in contact with friends and relatives in the occupied territories describe groups of men armed with Kalashnikov rifles, accompanied by a person with a portable ballot box, going door-to-door in apartment buildings and houses.
The EU High Representative Josep Borrell already condemned the decision to held a referendum, stating that the EU won't recognise it. “These illegal ‘votes’ cannot be considered under any circumstance as the free expression of the will of the people living in these regions under constant Russian military threat and intimidation,” EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said in a statement. In 2014, the EU established sanctions against Russia condemning Kremlin's decision to stage an illegal referendum on occupied peninsula.
Read similar cases claiming that Crimea joined Russia after the bloody US-coup in Ukraine, that Crimea joined Russia in a 2014 referendum, and that Kherson residents want to join Russia, not Ukraine.