Kiril Rogov, a member of the Zaporozhye civic-military administration, said on Thursday that after the referendum and the subsequent proclamation of independence and accession to the Russian Federation, all Ukrainian forces in the territory will be considered occupiers and aggressors.

On September 20th, the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics announced that they will hold referendums to join Russia between September 23rd and 27th.

The administrations of Kherson and Zaporozhye also declared that they will organize plebiscites on joining the Russian Federation on the same dates.

According to the region representatives, the referendum is necessary to “defend against terrorist acts” on the part of the Ukrainian government and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which supplies Zelensky’s regime with weapons “to murder civilians.”

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