Deputy head of the Kherson regional council, Serbly Khlan, has said the Russians are pressing on them to agree to a referendum on the region’s “independence” from Ukraine.
Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and on the Dnieper River and the home of a major ship-building industry in southern Ukraine, currently under Russian occupation.
According to Khlan, “the occupiers are preparing a referendum on the creation of the People’s Republic of Kherson.”
He explained that local deputies were being called by the Russians to ask if they are ready for “cooperation.”
“I flatly refused to co-operate with them. The creation of the People’s Republic of Kherson will turn our region into a hopeless hole without life and future,” he said.