President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the farce in the occupied territory cannot even be called an imitation of a referendum. His appeal was published in Telegram.
The President specified that no criminal actions of Russia would change anything for Ukraine. According to him, the country recognizes the UN Charter, the basic principles of the coexistence of peoples and will continue to act to protect normal life in Ukraine, in Europe and in the world.
"We will act to protect our people in the Kherson region, in the Zaporozhye region, in the Donbass, in the now occupied areas of the Kharkiv region and in the Crimea."
He also commented on the situation on the front line, noting that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are moving forward and liberating their land.
On September 28, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said that "referendums" in the so-called DPR and LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions "were held in compliance with all electoral norms."
On the morning of September 28, propagandists published preliminary data on the count of 100% of ballots following the results of "referendums" in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Russia conducted them in the so-called DPR and LPR, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions occupied this year. According to state agencies, 99.23% of those who voted in favor of joining the Russian Federation (in total, “2 million 131 thousand 207 people came to the polling stations”), in the “LPR” – 98.42% (including polling stations in the Russian Federation voted "1 million 662 thousand 607 voters"). In Zaporozhye, 93.11% of voters allegedly voted for joining, 541,093 people voted in total, and in the Kherson region – 87.05% (propagandists claim that a total of 571,001 people “voted”). A resident of Kherson told The Insider that civilians with a ballot box and ballots, accompanied by people with machine guns in masks, came to almost every courtyard to collect votes.
On September 27, the head of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, announced that the Federation Council could consider the issue of joining the regions to the Russian Federation on October 4, with positive results of the "referenda". She added that now there is no need for an extraordinary meeting of the chamber. Senator Andrei Klishas, in turn, also said that he does not see the need for an extraordinary meeting, and even more so "in some kind of artificial acceleration of the constitutional procedure for admitting new subjects to Russia."
Interfax reported that in total about 750 thousand residents of the Kherson region were included in the voter lists. “Referendums” in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine have been held since Friday. Kazakhstan , Serbia and Turkey decided not to recognize their results. The UK has imposed sanctions against the organizers of the "referenda".