Last week (August 22–28), the russian elite continued to do their favorite thing – the blackmail. Deputy Foreign Minister of the russian federation, sergey ryabkov, said that ignoring the russian "red lines" is very risky and can lead to a military conflict between the two nuclear powers. The self-proclaimed President of Belarus, alexander lukashenko, also joined the threats. In turn, the spokeswoman of the russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, zakharova, said, in the typically russian manner,...

Last week (August 15–21), russian elites continued their propaganda narratives claiming that the US and the "collective West" are purportedly guilty of russia starting a war against Ukraine.

Civil Network OPORA conducted a large-scale sociological study "Democracy, Rights and Freedoms of Citizens and Media Consumption in Conditions of War" in July 2022.

Ukrainians consider the rights and interests of citizens to be important, but at the same time they prefer a strong state and do not see timely and democratic elections as a priority after the suspension of martial law. However, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the russian federation, media consumption habits among Ukrainians have changed significantly: the majority get their news from online sources, in particular, social networks and messengers. This is evidenced by the dat...

Last week (August 8–14), Russia continued nuclear blackmail of Ukraine and the world in order to influence the international community and force our state to agree to russia's "peace plan" – the surrender of Ukraine and consent to the annexation of the occupied territories. The practical dimension of the russian strategy is that the russian troops are shelling the Zaporizhzhya NPP and the city of Energodar, accusing the Armed Forces of doing so. However, this strategy does not work. An anti-r...

ロシアは、占領したウクライナ領において疑似国民投票を実施する準備を進めている。疑似国民投票の結果はロシアがウクライナ領土を併合するための「法的根拠」となり、ロシアが世界にその併合を認めさせるか、核の脅迫を使った上で併合を怺えさせるかということを要求するだろう。「投票」の結果は法的には無効であるが、ウクライナ国内外の情勢に軍事的、人道的、政治的に大きな影響を与える。早速にロシアの計画に対抗しなければならない。コミュニティネットワーク「OPORA」は、ロシアが疑似国民投票にどのように準備しているかについて述べ、疑似国民投票開催による占領地住民やウクライナや世界への脅威を分析してみた。それでOPORAは、対抗策について考え、ウクライナや他国にその対抗策を勧告してみた。

In this material, OPORA's lawyers explain why Russian sham votes cannot be considered referendums, what are the international standards for holding referendums, how the democratic community reacted to the annexation of Ukrainian territory, what is the procedure for changing the territory provided for by the legislation of Ukraine, and will answer other related questions.

Rusia está preparando pseudo-referéndums en los territorios ucranianos invadidos. Los resultados de estos falsos referéndums crearán "bases legales" para que Rusia se anexione los territorios ucranianos y exija que el mundo reconozca la anexión o al menos la acepte, probablemente recurriendo al chantaje nuclear. Los resultados de la "votación" serán legalmente nulos, pero tendrán un impacto significativo en la situación militar, humanitaria y política en Ucrania y en el extranjero. Es necesar...