Russian invaders continue preparations for holding so-called "referenda" in the temporarily occupied areas of southern Ukraine. Russia is actually following the same scenario it carried out in 2014 in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.

It is obvious that Russia's wicked criminal actions have not received any support from the residents of the temporarily occupied territories. Instead, Ukrainians continue putting up staunch resistance to russian occupation administrations. That is why Moscow has started cooking up blatant falsification of the results of the "vote" to set up so-called "people's republics" in southern Ukraine.

Kremlin's attempts to "legalize" Russian occupation administrations in these territories and concoct a quasi-legal basis for forcible conscription of the region's residents are doomed to failure.

Under international law and the legislation of Ukraine, any results of such pseudo-referenda will be null and void. Ukraine and the entire civilized world will never recognize these illegal, criminal decisions by the russian federation.

We call on the international community to condemn any actions in preparation for so-called "referenda" in the south of Ukraine, not to recognize their "results", and continue sweeping comprehensive pressure on Russia to make it stop its aggression against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.