The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on Telegram about the detention of four people in the part of the Kherson region controlled by Kyiv for participating in the organization of a referendum on joining the region to Russia.

According to the department, the detained local residents during the referendum were members of precinct election commissions and allegedly made rounds of the population with a “requirement to provide personal data.” After that, they "forced citizens to come to the polls and vote in favor of the Kremlin." If they encountered resistance, they "used psychological violence and threatened."

At the moment they are in custody, they are charged under the article "Collaboration activities" of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

On January 23, a Ukrainian court for the first time passed a sentence for organizing a referendum in the Kherson region. The SBU noted that the woman was allegedly a member of the local election commission.

In September 2022, referendums were held in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, as well as in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, on the inclusion of the regions into Russia. The ceremony of signing agreements on the admission of four regions to Russia took place on September 30 in the Kremlin.