The head of the Kherson regional organization of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Dementii Bilyi, said that in temporarily occupied Kherson, the collaborators spread the message that they were not going to hold a referendum. This began after the Russians failed to organize a referendum on the creation of a pseudo-republic of the "Kherson People's Republic" ("KPR") and recognition of the occupied government.

According to him, in addition to the desire of the Russians, it takes a lot of people to hold a "referendum."

"Ballots can be printed and distributed on APCs or Tigers guarded by machine guns. But commissions are needed to organize the voting. Lots of commissions. And someone has to send people to these commissions. Some party or public organization or council of deputies. A small group of traitors, which the occupants managed to recruit during two months of occupation, is clearly not enough for this complex process," wrote Belyy in Facebook.

According to him, without members of the commissions, without officials with at least some lists of voters, without agitators who will tell them that "it is necessary to participate in the voting," without the media, posters of information posters - it is impossible to organize at least some "semblance " voting.

"Thousands of military personnel with machine guns and in balaclavas will not be able to tear the Kafirs away from the fighting so that they would spend the whole day in all the villages and towns in the region handing out ballots and then counting the votes. And, most importantly, there are not that many willing voters in Kherson oblast to at least hold that "referendum. The absolute majority of the region's residents are hostile to the idea from the KNR," explains the political scientist.

On April 16, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova reported that the Russian military is planning to hold a pseudo-referendum in the Kherson region in early May. On 25 April, the Russian military seized the building of Kherson city council.