The occupiers in the village of Rozivka, Zaporizhzhia oblast, held a staged "vote" on the alleged desire of local residents to temporarily join the so-called "Donetsk Peopleʼs Republic". Roziv district of Zaporizhzhia oblast borders Donetsk oblast and is currently occupied by the Russian military.
The corresponding video was published by the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today.
Later, the leader of the so-called "DPR", Denis Pushylin, also stated this. He noted that the puppet republic "will not ignore this request", but the issue of changing the so-called borders will be decided later. However, Pushylin has already said that people will be helped by "communications and the Internet, social payments, medical services, law enforcement, etc."
The Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration has already responded to the "voting" in Rozivka. The statement of the head of the Polohy Regional State Administration Artur Krupskyi was published there. He said that before this "vote" the Russians worked with the local population.
"They were invited to find out various social problems of the population, invited to the local house of culture, where the so-called meeting was held, but there were mostly elderly people and IDPs from Mariupol. It was announced about a "memorandum" or "expression of will" of the people to, first, hold "elections" of a new mayor, a new village asset, and then appeal to the "DPR" to join temporarily until Zaporizhzhia is captured, he said.
According to Krupskyi, this "vote" is fake, and a statement was submitted to the prosecutorʼs office.