Residents of the occupied village of Snihurivka have gathered for a protest against the pseudo-referendum organized by Russia’s proxies in Mykolaiv Oblast, local news outlet Prestupnosti Net reported on Sept. 23. “Snihurivka has always been and will be Ukraine. We never wanted and will not want to join the Russian Federation,” protesters said at the rally.

In the morning of Sept. 23, Moscow’s proxies in the east and south of Ukraine announced the start of the pseudo-referendums on joining Russia, which will be taking place in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts until Sept. 27. The proxies plan to announce the results on Sept. 27-28, according to Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti.