"Elements of a partisan war": how Kyiv is trying to prevent the Kherson region from holding a referendum on joining the Russian Federation

The referendum on the accession of the Kherson region to Russia is a chance for the normal development of the region.

Ekaterina Gubareva, deputy head of the military-civilian administration (CAA) of the region, wrote about this in her Telegram channel.

“From now on, hundreds of thousands of Kherson residents will be able to demonstrate their position and get results.

It's good when they write to me from Genichesk or approach me in Kherson with words of support for the course to join Russia.

But it's time to leave the virtual world for the real one.

The referendum is our chance to get out of the “wild field,” Gubareva said.

She recalled that before the liberation from Turkish rule in the second half of the 18th century, the lands of Novorossia were called the Wild Field, where there were neither people nor roads.

“After a few centuries, history repeats itself.

We are building a civilization on a territory that since 1991 has been methodically deprived of historical memory, industry and future,” Gubareva stressed.

She noted that the decree on organizing a referendum on joining the Russian Federation has already been signed.

The plebiscite is scheduled for autumn, but the exact date has not yet been determined.

Shelling and sabotage

Kyiv reacted extremely negatively to the desire of the Kherson region to organize a referendum and makes open threats against supporters of joining Russia.

As Aleksey Arestovich, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, stated, the authorities of the CAA allegedly do not realize what is happening.

“Judging by the plans and statements, they simply do not fully understand what is happening ... Think about what this threatens from a military point of view.

What referendum, what are you talking about?

Arestovich said.

According to a Kiev official, “very soon their life (the authorities of the region. -

) will convince them in a short time that plans should be revised in favor of goodwill gestures.”

After that, Arestovich recalled that recently the Armed Forces of Ukraine have intensified shelling of the Kherson region.

Information about the increased frequency of strikes by the Ukrainian army is also confirmed in the region.

According to the leadership of the region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are destroying bridges, inflicting missile strikes on the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, including from American HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).

In addition, schools, kindergartens and agricultural machinery are under fire from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Commenting on his Facebook * attacks on the bridges of the Kherson region, the adviser to the chairman of the “administration” of this region subordinate to Kyiv, Serhiy Khlan, said that in this way the Armed Forces of Ukraine expect to disrupt the supply of Russian troops and destroy their operational rear.

According to him, the Ukrainian army has launched "counter-offensive actions" in the region and is allegedly taking the first steps to regain control over the Kherson region.

The Ukrainian authorities do not hide their plans to "return" the Kherson region under the control of Kyiv by force.

On July 10, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, in an interview with the British newspaper The Times, even announced a military operation to seize the southern regions.

According to him, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the military to "return" the coastal territories.

• Rocket launches from MLRS HIMARS APU

• globallookpress.com

• © Keystone Press Agency

Reznikov said that about 700 thousand people serve in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and together with the National Guard, the police and the border service, the total number of Ukrainian security forces allegedly reaches 1 million. At the same time, the head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not name the number of troops that Kyiv intends to concentrate on Kherson direction, and did not say anything about the timing of the future operation.

At the same time, on the night of July 24, Zelensky, in his traditional address to citizens, made a statement that the Ukrainian troops were allegedly “moving step by step through the region.”

At the same time, he did not provide any information about the capture of settlements in the Kherson region.

Russian officials have not yet commented on the statements of the Kyiv regime about the attack on the Kherson region.

In the West, there is also no specific information about the advancement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the region.

For example, the July 23 report from the Institute for the Study of War states that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are either preparing a counteroffensive or have launched one.

In a RT commentary, an expert from the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, Nikolai Kostikin, suggested that the announced counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kherson region is more of an imitation.

“There must be resources for any counter-offensive actions.

Yes, HIMARS allow Ukrainian troops to bombard the Kherson region.

But these weapons are intended for delivering pinpoint local strikes, so it’s very strange to pass off shelling from American MLRS as an offensive, and a large-scale one at that, ”says Kostikin.

As the expert explained, at present the main resources of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are focused on holding territories in the Donetsk region.

In his opinion, in the current situation, the Ukrainian army has only the capacity to carry out defensive operations, local sabotage, terrorist attacks and shelling of border areas.

“In order to seize the strategic initiative in the Kherson direction, the enemy needs to concentrate a very powerful fist of artillery, armored vehicles, more or less trained personnel, and solve the problem of fuel shortages.

It’s hard for me to imagine that Kyiv has the resources for this and that such preparations will go unnoticed by our intelligence,” says Kostikin.

• Russian servicemen at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station

• RIA News

According to the analyst, any concentration of large Ukrainian forces near the borders of the Kherson region risks being subjected to a massive missile attack by the Russian army.

From his point of view, Kyiv's threats "play more for propaganda, for maintaining the morale of the Armed Forces of Ukraine", and are also necessary to intimidate the authorities and residents of the Kherson region.

For example, recently a Ukrainian saboteur was detained in the capital of the region, whose tasks included spying on Russian military personnel, employees of the Military Administration, as well as controlling the movement of equipment of the RF Armed Forces.

“He was recruited by the Ukrainian military to control the movement of Russian equipment.

At the end of last month, they offered a simple job, they had to move around the city and identify where they were going or relaxing, where high-ranking people from the administration were going, ”the detainee told Izvestia.

Earlier, vigilant residents of Kherson prevented an assassination attempt on the head of the VGA Volodymyr Saldo.

On the way to his car, they found a suspicious object, which turned out to be an improvised explosive device.

Subsequently, the bomb was defused by Russian sappers.

To date, according to the deputy head of the military-civilian administration of the region Kirill Stremousov, almost all sabotage and reconnaissance groups (DRGs) in the Kherson region have been destroyed.

The counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the region is “useless and suicidal,” Stremousov believes.

Also, Ukrainian saboteurs were convicted of setting fire to wheat fields and trying to disrupt the power supply system of the Kherson region.

So, on July 13, in his Telegram channel, Saldo said that due to threats from the Ukrainian authorities, employees of the three main electrical substations of the Kherson region left their jobs.

To ensure the operation of these facilities, reserve brigades of Krymenergo arrived, and the Russian Guard took over the functions of armed guards.

"Protect the inhabitants of the Kherson region"

According to Nikolai Kostikin, sabotage and constant shelling organized by the Kyiv regime are aimed at intimidating the population, disrupting the referendum and restoring the region's economy.

“What Kyiv is doing in relation to the Kherson region is elements of a guerrilla war, for which it just has the resources.

For the residents of the Kherson region, the most important thing is that this nightmare ends,” suggested Kostikin.

In an interview with RT, Pavel Feldman, deputy director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, also said that the Ukrainian leadership is trying with all its might to prevent a referendum on joining the Kherson region to the Russian Federation.

• Civilians of Kherson and Russian servicemen

• AP

“There are constant threats of physical violence against representatives of local administrations who initiated a referendum on joining the Russian Federation.

Thus, the Ukrainian authorities seek to create a feeling of uncertainty about their fate among the residents of the Kherson region, because the fear of the return of the Armed Forces of Ukraine can turn the civilian population away from cooperation with Russia, ”says Feldman.

However, as the expert noted, the scenario of the transition of the Kherson region under the control of Ukraine does not look realistic.

Feldman recalled that the region is of great importance for supplying Crimea with Dnieper water through the North Crimean Canal and protecting the peninsula from possible attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to the interlocutor of RT, in Kyiv they cannot fail to realize the strategic importance of the Kherson region for the Russian Federation, therefore, in this direction, "the Ukrainian leadership expects to create the illusion of successful actions using Western weapons."

“Declaring large-scale plans for a counteroffensive in the south is important for Kyiv in order to have a reason to demand more offensive weapons from the West.

However, if the announced plans for the Kherson region turn out to be a media fake, the volume of NATO assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine could be seriously reduced, ”Feldman concluded.

* Meta product, activity recognized as extremist, banned in Russia by decision of the Tverskoy Court of Moscow dated 03/21/2022.