Russia has announced a forced and illegal referendum on the occupied areas.

 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office has responded to the sudden announcements of referendums on joining Russia in occupied parts of Ukraine. “Naive blackmail with threats and horror stories of ‘referendums’ and ‘mobilizations’ from those who only know how to fight children and peaceful people… This is how the fear of defeat looks. The enemy is afraid, and is primitively trying to manipulate the situation,” said the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak. An adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that the Russians decided to respond asymmetrically to the Ukrainian counteroffensive. He added, thinking that an illegal ‘referendum’ will stop HIMARS and the Armed Forces from destroying the occupiers in our land. “Do you really want to spend the time needed to escape for a new show? Try…It will be interesting.”