EU External Relations Representative Josep Borrell said:The European Union condemns the illegal holding of Russian referendums and their falsification of results, andThe results of the Russian referendums are yet another violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, in addition to the systematic violations of human rights.

Earlier, the Russian TASS agency reported, with reference to the results of a survey published by the Crimean Republican Institute of Political and Social Research, that on the first day of voting in the referendum on the accession of Zaporozhye to the Russian Federation, in September 23, 2022, 500 residents of the region were polled. Among those who voted in the referendum and answered the question, 93% support the accession of the Zaporozhye region to the Russian Federation. And 7% support the Ukrainian situation in the region.

In this context, the pro-Russian separatist authorities in Donetsk stated that “about 236,000 people voted in the referendum to join Russia.”

On the morning of September 23, the process of a referendum on the issue of joining Russia began in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics of Russia, as well as in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, where voting will last until the 27th.