Plans to hold a referendum on Ukraine’s Kherson region becoming part of Russia have been put on hold, said Kirill Stremusov, deputy head of the Russian-backed administration in the region. “The Kherson region is ready for a referendum on joining the Russian Federation, but there has been a pause due to the security situation,” he said, according to Russian state news agency TASS. Ukrainian and US officials have long criticized Russian efforts to hold fake referendums in Kherson and other Russian-held regions of Ukraine. Stremusov’s remarks come a week after Ukraine announced that its long-awaited offensive to retake Kherson had begun. Since then, there have been dozens of strikes against Russian forces and infrastructure in Kherson. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called the referendum a “farce and circus” and warned Ukrainian citizens not to participate. “For our citizens who will participate in this – this is, in fact, an article of the Criminal Code,” he said. “Don’t take part in any ‘referendum’. “Neither pressure, nor violent incitement, etc., will be able to justify the fact that someone went to the ‘referendum,’” he said.
