It is expected that the Kherson region will become part of Russia as a separate entity after the referendum on unification with the country led by Vladimir Putin, the head of the Russian occupation authority, Volodymyr Saldo, said on Wednesday, TASS cites.

“We plan to join the Russian Federation precisely as a subject – the region, the Kherson region,” he said during his appearance on the “Solovyev Live” show.

He warned that “any attempt to disrupt the referendum in the Kherson region by military means is doomed to failure.”

“There is very serious training and assistance from the law enforcement agencies. Voting will take place. Any attempts to prevent the holding of the referendum by military means, military conditions are doomed to failure. I am sure that the army will help us and create a situation in which the referendum will be held without problems,” Volodymyr Saldo said.

His comments came after he recently announced he was back in the office after being hospitalized in a Moscow hospital following a poisoning attempt.

What is Russia actually planning for the occupied Ukrainian territories

Investigative journalists of Meduza, who reported for the first time in June that Vladimir Putin wants to annex all occupied Ukrainian territories, not just the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, then claimed that the Kremlin intends to unite these territories into a single federal county. to join Russia.

One of the sources close to the Kremlin, cited by the website Meduza, which has been banned in Russia since March, reported that the current heads of the two “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine, Denys Pushylin and Leonid Pasechinik, may lose their positions. replaced by Russian officials who were considered more loyal.

Apparently, the Kremlin did not want the funds allocated by Moscow for the future district annexed to it to be disposed of by “disturbed local characters”. Later, all “Meduza” noted that the favorite for the post of governor of the newly created district would be the former head of “Roscosmos”, Dmytro Rogozin, who was replaced from his position in mid-July.

Russian investigative journalists noted that, despite rumors about this, Rogozin was not removed from office because he would fall out of favor with Vladimir Putin, but on the contrary, the head of the Kremlin would like to appoint him to a closer position through his presidential administration .

In June, Rogozin directly called for genocide in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin expressed his support for referendums on annexation

The separatist authorities in all of Ukraine’s Russian-controlled territories made a coordinated announcement on Tuesday to hold referendums on unification with Russia, an initiative that was immediately supported by several senior officials in Moscow.

In a speech he delivered on Wednesday morning to announce Russia’s partial mobilization, President Vladimir Putin, in turn, said he supported holding the referendums, which will take place from September 23 to 27.

Meduza journalists claim that Putin would be convinced to hold these referendums, despite the fact that the Russian army was only able to occupy about 60% of Donetsk region due to panic among pro-Russian separatists after the collapse of the Kharkiv front. and fears that Moscow’s armed forces could lose even more territory they have seized in Ukraine.

Several Meduza interlocutors emphasized that the Russian authorities do not even intend to create the “illusion of legitimacy” regarding the annexation referendums.

“It will be important to organize some kind of vote and report the results,” one of the sources explained, adding that electronic voting is planned because it is easier to manipulate.

On September 5, pro-Russian separatists in Kherson announced that they were “suspending” plans to organize a referendum with Russia in the context of a Ukrainian counteroffensive in this region in the south of their country.

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