Invaders to count minors’ votes in sham referendum – SBU

“The invaders hope to expand the ‘electoral base’ supporting the accession of the eastern part of Ukraine to the Russian Federation and involve local residents aged 13 to 17 in pseudo-voting,” the report says.

In order to strengthen control over “turnout”, minors must be accompanied to “polling stations” by their parents, guardians, or representatives of so-called orphanages. Also, to boost turnout, they plan to attract families from Donetsk region who had left for the Russian Federation.

The so-called “central electoral commission of the DPR” was instructed to submit corresponding changes to the “electoral process.”

The SBU has already identified all the organizers of the effort, established their whereabouts, and documented their crimes.

As reported, in the wake of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine on September 20, the leaders of the “LPR/DPR” and collaborators in the Russian-occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhia regions rushed to announce “referenda on accession to Russia,” scheduling them for September 23-27.

The leaders of Western powers have already declared that any Russian sham referenda in Ukraine would be deemed illegitimate. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 21 that Russia would recognize their outcome.

Meanwhile, a survey run in August 2022 by Active Group shows that in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the vast majority of respondents are sure that their region should be an integral part of Ukraine, and that their well-being and security have significantly deteriorated amid the occupation.

In particular, almost 73% of respondents consider Russia’s territorial claims on their region to be completely unfounded. Also, 82% of respondents in the temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine said they would not go to polling stations if Russian puppet authorities resorted to holding a referendum.