Up to 10% of locals ready to participate in staged referendum in Snihurivka – Head of Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration

ROMAN PETRENKO – SATURDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER 2022, 12:17

Vitalii Kim, Head of the Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration, believes that only about 160 people will come to the self-styled referendum in the temporarily occupied town of Snihurivka in Mykolaiv Oblast.

Source: Kim in an interview for RBC-Ukraine [Ukrainian news agency]

Quote: "Let's see – nearly 8-10% said that they would come. And we don’t know yet what their choice will be. So 160 people out of 2,000 residents will be present, and the ‘referendum’ will be held, but it won’t look very good.

Bringing ‘titushky’ – or whatever they are called – to Snihurivka is also dangerous [titushky are a collective name for hired thugs who use brute force in the interests of their handlers; the term derives from the surname of Vadym Titushko, an athlete who attacked reporters during a street fight with anti-government opposition supporters in Kyiv in May 2013 - ed.]. Nobody wants to go to Snihurivka and be a part of the crowd scene there. There are certain problems with that."

Details: Kim added that as of today, the situation in the town is satisfactory.

He stated that before the war, nearly 12,000 people lived in Snihurivka. Since the beginning of the war, the number has dropped to 2,000.

Background: In April, the Chief Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence reported that a so-called referendum was being prepared in Snihurivka, in which a new mayor was supposedly going to be elected. Russian occupiers also want to see Snihurivka administratively merged with Crimea.

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