Status: 05.09.2022 3:48 p.m
According to the will of the Russian occupiers, the people of Cherson should vote on incorporation into Russian territory. Now the preparations have been stopped for the time being. According to Russian sources, the reason for this is the security situation.
In the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson, preparations for a referendum on incorporation into Russian territory have been halted. This is reported by the Russian news agency Tass.
The background is the security situation in the area. The TASS news agency quoted the Russian deputy chief of the city of Kherson, Kirill Stremoussov, as saying that access by car via the important Antonivskyj bridge was no longer possible after Ukrainian troops had bombed it.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Almost entirely under Russian control
The Antonivskyi Bridge crosses the Dnieper River near the city of Kherson. The region of the same name was almost completely under Russian troops’ control in March.
There has not yet been a fixed date for the planned referendum. However, Stremoussow announced at the end of June that it would take place in the coming six months. Preparations for this have already begun.
Shaded in white: advance of the Russian army. Shaded in green: Russian-backed separatist areas. Crimea: annexed by Russia.
Image: ISW/09/04/2022
Ukraine launches counteroffensive
After annexing the Crimean Peninsula south of the Kherson region in 2014, Russia also held a referendum on its incorporation into Russian territory there. The majority voted in favour. However, this is not recognized internationally.
According to its own statements, Ukraine launched a counter-offensive in the south of the country a week ago. In his video message on Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that two towns in the south of the country and one in the east of the country had been recaptured.
US institute: “Demonstrable progress”
The southern command of the Ukrainian army announced on Monday night that it had destroyed an ammunition depot, a pontoon bridge and a control center for Russian troops near the city of Cherson.
The US Institute for War Studies also writes in a report that the Ukrainian offensive in the south of the country is making “demonstrable progress”.