LVIV, Ukraine, March 12 (Reuters) – The Russian army which took control of Kherson plans to hold a “pseudo” referendum in the southern Ukrainian port to create a new separatist region there, said on Saturday the vice-president of the regional council.
“The creation of this (republic) would turn our region into a hole without hope, without life or future,” Sergey Khlan wrote on social networks.
The Russian army seized Kherson in the first days of its offensive in Ukraine, launched on February 24, but the city was then the scene of demonstrations by inhabitants hostile to its occupation. (Report Pavel Polityuk and Matthias Williams, French version Bertrand Boucey)