Blinken: russian-installed leaders to hold fake referenda to annex part of Ukraine

The United States is convinced that Moscow's proteges will hold sham referenda to annex part of Ukraine

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this on Wednesday, CNN reports.

He noted that the US "must and we will act quickly to make clear to russia that these tactics will not work."

"russia installed leaders will hold sham referendums to manufacture the fiction that the people in those places want to join russia. 

Then they'll use those false votes to claim that the annexation of these regions is legitimate," Blinken said at a news conference at the US State Department in Washington, DC.

The chief US diplomat stated, "annexation by force of the territory of a sovereign and independent country is a gross violation of the United Nations Charter."

"Members of the international community that have committed to uphold the charter and international law have a responsibility to denounce these plans by the Russian government and to make clear they will never recognize these illegal acts," he said. 

"Otherwise, no one can claim to be surprised when Russia follows through on its plans or if other countries follow suit in the future," Blinken emphasized.

To recap, the spokesperson of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oleh Nikolenko, believes that the statements of the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov, about Kyiv being allegedly reluctant to negotiate with Moscow are aimed at disrupting the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian forces in the south.

Earlier, the russian service of Radio Svoboda reported that the russian occupation authorities of the temporarily captured parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions signed "documents" on Saturday to create "election commissions." As the publication notes, the so-called "election commissions" are made, in particular, to hold pseudo-referendums, and the composition hasn't been decided.

In the temporarily captured areas of the Zaporizhzhia region, "decrees" were also issued on creating so-called "election commissions" to hold a pseudo-referendum, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said.

On June 23, the National Resistance Center, created by Ukraine's Special Operations Forces, reported that the russian aggressors plan to hold a pseudo-referendum to form "republics" on the temporarily captured territories in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions on September 11.

The head of the Luhansk region, Serhii Haidai, similarly reported on russians beginning preparation for the pseudo-referendum in the Luhansk region.

On July 20, John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the US National Security Council, said that the White House had information that the russian invaders were preparing to annex the territories of Ukraine captured after February 24. They want to repeat the schemes used in 2014 with Crimea.

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