Real sociological research conducted among temporarily occupied territories residents in August 2022 showed that Ukrainians are not ready to participate in such “referendums” and prefer their regions to remain an integral part of Ukraine.
Pro-Kremlin sources spread information that more than 80% of Ukrainians in temporarily occupied Kherson and more than 85% of Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region allegedly “expressed a desire to participate in the national vote about returning the regions to their historical Motherland”. According to propagandists, the majority is ready to vote for Russia. So-called sociological studies and focus groups allegedly conducted by the Independent Public Monitoring association are proof of such a “majority choice”.
Independent Public Monitoring is a Russian platform for monitoring elections of various levels, as stated on the project’s website. The association founders belong to various Russian state structures. In particular, two of them are in the Russian President’s Council for civil society and human rights development. The “expert materials” of the association promote the same Russian propagandist narratives about Ukraine and the war in Ukraine as the traditional Russian mass media. No elections that take place in the Russian Federation seem questionable to these “observers” — despite international institutes continuing to note that Russia has turned into a full-fledged authoritarian state.
Therefore, it is unreasonable to expect objectivity from such “research” from a pro-Putin organization. Moreover, the “sociologists” did not submit any reports on their work and did not show the sample of respondents, the methodology used in conducting their research, or the list of questions the respondents were allegedly asked.
Meanwhile, those studies that actually were conducted in the temporarily occupied territories produced the opposite results — most respondents are confident that their region should be an integral part of Ukraine, and their well-being and security have significantly decreased since the Russian occupation. These are the results of a study by Active Group, which surveyed 600 residents of the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories from August 4 to 8.
In particular, the respondents were asked to choose the desired status of their region, and 61.5% answered that it should be an integral part of Ukraine, 13.6% found it difficult to answer, 10.3% said that they did not care, in which country their region will be, 6.8% expressed the desire to be a part of Ukraine under the conditions of federalization, and 6.8% — part of the Russian Federation. 0.9% expressed the opinion that their region should be an independent state/part of a new independent state.
In addition, respondents were asked whether they would go to a “referendum” if Russia held one in their region, and 81.8% said no.
The Ukrainian Ministry for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories noted that, according to their data, residents of these regions do not accept Russian passports forced on the residents or the idea of holding a “hybrid referendum”. Also, despite all the occupiers’ efforts of forcing local residents to accept a Russian passport, only a few thousand citizens from the occupied Kherson and part of Zaporizhia regions decided to do so. That is, less than 1% of the entire adult population. Because of forced passporting, many residents decide to flee for territories controlled by Ukraine.
Previously, StopFake refuted similar fakes and propagandist narratives aimed at convincing its audience that the temporarily occupied territories allegedly support Russia and want a common future with the occupiers. You can read about this in the following stories Fake: Ukrainians Want “Referendums” on Russia Occupied Territories, Fake: Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Preparing for “Referendum to Join Russia”.
