Security Service exposes referendum methods in occupied territories

Ukrainska Pravda
·2 min read
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VALENTYNA ROMANENKO – TUESDAY, 26 JULY 2022, 12:18

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has documented the fact that Russia has begun an active phase of preparing a pseudo-referendum on the illegal ‘accession’ of temporarily occupied territories in the east of Ukraine.

Source: Artem Dekhtiarenko, Security Service of Ukraine spokesman

Details: According to the mass of information collected by the Ukrainian intelligence service, the aggressor is planning to use the pro-Russian organisation ‘Donetsk Republic’ to organise a so-called ‘expression of people’s will’.

Previously, it operated only on the territory of the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ (‘DPR’), but now its geography is being expanded. The aggressor is planning to change the name accordingly. ‘Greater Russia’ is the most likely name that the occupiers will choose for the civil society organisation that will be engaged in the campaign.

According to the SSU, more than 1,000 ‘activists’ are already active in this organisation and they are holding daily meetings with the population of the temporarily occupied territories. Among them are campaigners, bloggers and vigilantes who collaborate with the occupiers.

 
 

In effect, they recruit people by inviting them to join the organisation. They have already engaged more than 200,000 local residents.

Kremlin overseers plan to use Kremlin-controlled media to reach "more than 50 million viewers from Russia and eastern Ukraine" with their propaganda about fake campaigns.

In addition, the invaders plan to send more than 1,000 Russian ‘experts’ and ‘volunteers’ to the region to reshape the internal mood in their favour.

According to the SSU, they plan to organise illegal mass gatherings, spread propaganda in support of the pseudo-referendum and set up ‘polling stations’.

Furthermore, they plan to prepare appeals allegedly from local residents to the leadership of the occupation administration regarding the ‘accession’ of Donetsk region to the Russian Federation. The SSU has several of such intercepted documents already.

To strengthen ‘electoral support’, the invaders are offering food kits, starter packs for Russian mobile operators and propaganda newspapers. These papers are already being printed on the territory of the so-called ‘DPR’ with a print run of more than 250,000 copies.

In addition, in order to spread separatist ideas, the aggressor plans to create an extensive network of so-called ‘activists’ in the Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts in order to deploy large-scale subversive activities if necessary.

Quote: "Currently, the Security Service has established the identity and location of the organisers and perpetrators of these crimes. Comprehensive actions are underway to bring them to justice.

SSU cyber ​​security specialists in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts have exposed and documented these crimes."