Preliminary Results in Four Oblast Referenda Show 97-98% Support for Joining Russia

Sept. 27, 2022 (EIRNS)—Today was the last day of the five days of voting in referendums in Lugansk and Donetsk republics, and Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions on whether to join Russia. Within a few hours, preliminary results were already being reported, with support for joining Russia at 97-98% with 21-22% of the votes counted.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in an interview with Russia’s Channel 1 TV broadcast yesterday, charged that the U.S. doesn’t allow for alternative views of the situations in those regions. “They [the U.S.] continue to dictate to all people who live in these territories, to those who make decisions directly based on their own understanding, where to live, how to live, what to do, how to arrange their normal existence, guaranteed safe, prosperous life,” he said. “They dictate the opposite, they pull these people back, they replicate the threats.”

Ryabkov said that he now expects increased pressure on Moscow: “Undoubtedly, the situation won’t become easier following the referendums. Without a doubt, those requests to increase pressure on Russia that were expressed at the UN at the highest level by the U.S. and a number of states led by it will be implemented. We are ready for this. We will continue fighting, including on the diplomatic front,” he said.

International observers were present in all of the regions during balloting. One notable example of many was Khulekani Mondli Skosana, the head of the International Liaison office of the African National Congress Youth League, who compared the Kiev regime with South Africa’s former apartheid regime. “Dictators naturally do not care about the opinion and views of the people. And that’s what we see: He [Zelenskyy] is using Ukrainians as a sacrifice for his cheap political campaign. He is a pure comedian and a puppet of the West and we see him as a war criminal,” she said, reported Sputnik International. “Of course, we see very serious similarities between the apartheid government and the government of Zelenskyy. They have the same sponsors; they use the same tactics. They want to divide people based on their ethnicity.”