Posted on 09/22/2022 5:46:12 PM PDT by Its All Over Except ...
As long as it follows the Ukrainian constitution (which I said in my earlier post, but that you deleted from your version of my quote).
That way, it would be in accordance with Ukrainian law, as it should be.
The 2014 Crimean referendum had two choices, Yes and Yes. The ballot's two choices were "leave Ukraine now" or "leave Ukraine later", staying in Ukraine was not a option. Places unlikely to vote in either of the correct ways did not have polling places and most of those wanting to stay did not vote.
These elections are a means to a end for Putin, nothing more. Protecting Russian people beyond Russia's borders was always a sham.
The headline says vote but the content suggests actively facilitating the referendum. I smell embellishment.
30% of the geography and over half of the Oblast population isn’t even getting a voting station. Because it’s Ukrainian held territory.
That is confirmed in the official statement by the Zaporizhzhia occupation as reported by TASS. So, not western fake news but Russian factual reporting.
Ukraine might be ordering people not to participate in the SETUP or ADMINISTRATION of the Zaporizhzhia referendum, but it’s gesture politics - completely redundant if the Russian occupation never intended to canvass the population of the Oblast capital city.
What it really means is, in the event Zaporizhzhia is liberated they’ll target the Russian administration and anyone who helped set up this referendum.
Russia needs to explain how it’s planning to declare a Cossack city of over 700,000 people that’s been in its Oblast for several centuries and has always had an identity separate to Russia, and to this day allies itself to kyiv, can be transferred to Russian federation rule by the stroke of a pen via a rigged referendum.
If Russia wants to take it by force, the battle will make Mariupol look like a peaceful handover. Azov was a limited force in a city with split allegiances; Zaporizhzhia has at least 150,000 motivated defenders who regrouped from Donbas and Kherson, *and* it has the Cossacks.
If Russia resorts to tactical nukes in Ukraine to force a Ukrainian surrender of declared Russian territories, the most logical target will be Zaporizhzhia city. It’s the biggest population center in the southern Oblasts that Russia cannot yet control.
Even if they vote NO?
Meanwhile, the Russian ass is being kicked out of Ukraine and bleeding profusely. At home, Mother Russia suffers from being totally inadequate to produce what is needed to just live.
Russian troops are being killed because Mother Russia somehow failed to provide roads decent enough to haul the supplies to carry out a war
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.