Zaporizhzhya board wants referendum on joining Russia

The pro-Russian administration of the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhya wants to hold a referendum on joining Russia in a few weeks. According to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, the administration today signed a decree that should make such a plebiscite possible.

The southern part of the Zaporizhzhya region, including the city of Melitopol and Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, has been in Russian hands for months. Pro-Russian military administrators rule it out. That they left for annexation by Russia has been known for a long timebut this is the first time that they have made a concrete commitment to it.

In a statement, officials say they are “one people” with Russia. The Zaporizhzhya administration is expected to hold the referendum on the same day as the Moscow municipal elections, September 11, although this has yet to be officially confirmed by authorities.

Yesterday, Ukrainian President Zelensky warned against the referendums that Russia plans to organize. “If the occupiers continue to organize pseudo-referendums, they can forget the talks with Ukraine and the free world,” he said.

Zelensky reiterated in a video speech that Ukraine will not cede territory to Russia. “We will not give up anything that is ours.”

A Kremlin spokesman said today, in response to Zelensky’s remarks, that the Ukrainian president had no intention of holding referendums in Russian-occupied areas. “We have to turn to the locals and ask them why they no longer want to be part of Ukraine.”

This is not the first time that the Ukrainian president has warned against Russian referendums. In April he has already called on residents of areas around Kherson and Zaporizhzhya not to give personal data to Russian soldiers, as the Kremlin plans to hold a “fake independence referendum” there.

In 2014, Russia also held such a referendum for the self-declared people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, among others. This would have shown that the majority Russian-speaking population wished to belong to Russia. The plebiscites were not recognized by anyone other than Russia.