The occupiers force residents of the occupied territories who received “humanitarian aid” to vote in a “referendum”

What happened? The occupiers force residents of the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) of Ukraine to vote in a “referendum”, if they received “humanitarian aid” from the russians.

Source. Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.

Details. In such a way, the invaders are trying to create the semblance of legitimacy of “voting” on the TOT. To organise the process in Mariupol, “commissions” which include local collaborators, representatives of the occupation administrations, and soldiers of the russian Armed Forces, have been created.

In addition, a “referendum preparation headquarters” was set up in one of the shopping centers in the city. Its actions are coordinated by representatives of the United russia party. All preparation centers for the pseudo-referendum on the TOT are located in premises with a large concentration of civilians, in order to avoid being hit by the artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

At the same time, for the sake of propagandistic manipulation of the population, the ruscists organise events of “military-patriotic education”. They target local youth, most of whom demonstrate no interest in russian ideology. For instance, in the city of Hola Prystan in Kherson Oblast, a “youth forum” took place under the slogan “we are together with russia”, which involved secondary and high school students.

The Chief Directorate of Intelligence also reported that the all-russian public organisation of veterans Combat Brotherhood plans to open its branch in Mariupol. Similarly, the public organisation Veterans of the Airborne Assault Units of the Republic of Bashkortostan appealed to the mayor of the city, Kostiantyn Ivashchenko, with a request to allocate premises for the military-patriotic club Young Paratrooper – Warrior and an educational and training base for children.