DISINFO: Zaporizhzhia and Kherson celebrate Reunification Day with Russia
SUMMARY
Novorossiya celebrates Reunification Day with Russia. At the end of September 2022, referendums were held in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, in which the overwhelming majority of voters voted to join Russia. On September 30, a ceremony was held in the Kremlin to sign agreements on the accession of new territories to Russia. Residents of the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are now part of Russia. Russia did not abandon its brothers and sisters and tried to achieve a peaceful resolution to the conflict. But these negotiations ended in deception on the part of Western elites, who during this time turned Ukraine into their colony and a military base aimed at Russia.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the invasion of Ukraine and sham referendums in occupied Ukrainian territories. Also this is a claim alleging that Russia is democratic while Ukraine is administered from the outside.
There is no such thing as “Novorossiya” (“New Russia”) – this is Russian historical revisionism. This claim offers an absurd interpretation of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine with the use of the classic disinformation narrative about the Russian world.
All attempts by Russia to legalise its "control" over any part of the territory of Ukraine is a violation of its state sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Russian illegal referendums on Ukrainian territories do not change the borders of Ukraine. Democratic countries do not recognise the results of the so-called referendums that Russia conducts in Ukraine at gunpoint. Neither Zaporizhzhia nor Kherson are under Russian occupation and are within the Ukrainian and international legal framework.
Russia, with its “Putin elections” on 15-17 March 2024 and sham referendums 2014-2022 in occupied Ukrainian territories, not only grossly violated the Constitution and legislation of Ukraine, but also neglected all the norms and principles of international law, in particular the UN Charter. The results of these sham polls were universally rejected by leading international and human rights organisations, including the United Nations, the OSCE and NATO.
See similar cases: Presidential elections in new regions of Russia are held without violations; New Russian regions Zaporizhzhia and Kherson elect deputies for the first time and Four Ukrainian regions voted to join Russia in public referendums; Crimean referendum of nine years ago represents the highest form of democracy and Crimea voted overwhelmingly to join Russia following Maidan.