“Sham ‘referendums’ will not change anything. Neither will any hybrid ‘mobilization’. Russia has been and remains an aggressor illegally occupying parts of Ukrainian land. Ukraine has every right to liberate its territories and will keep liberating them whatever Russia has to say,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Earlier, on September 19, Russia-backed militants from the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics announced their plans to hold a ‘referendum’ on the occupied territories on joining Russia.