You can hold voting for a referendum? But no presidential election? Contradictory but whatever.
Furthermore Zelensky said that Russia should be invited to the next peace summit in November. No way he'll negotiate sensibly and it will still be for Ukraine's PR.
The majority of the world today says that Russia must be represented at the second summit, otherwise we will not achieve meaningful results,” he said, adding “since the whole world wants them to be at the table, we cannot be against it.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/601950-ukraine-russia-peace-talks-zelensky/
Clownsky's just adjusting his tone to retain the western audience imo.
Sure, but Ukraine surely wouldn't take a referendum on the status of a region without taking the wishes of the long-standing residents of that region under advisement, right? That'd be some Nazi shit.
Like just to be clear, I expect the Banderite regime to absolutely exclude Crimeans and the people of the Donbass from this referendum, I just think it's a farce to hold a referendum on the fate of a people and specifically exclude them from voting on it.
The only reason they are doing a referendum is because otherwise Russia won't accept negotiating. If Zelensky's government negotiates peace with Russia, then the next Ukrainian government can reject the treaty on the grounds that Zelensky was not elected in office at the time.
Besides legitimazing himself, Zelensky is also trying to shift the blame around. With a referendum, it's not him that gave up Ukrainian territory to Russia, it's everyone.
I wouldn't expect much consideration to go into how this referendum is going to be made, as its results won't really change anything. The point is just to declare that a referendum was made.
This makes a lot of sense, I hadn't considered the possibility that this is just to make it harder for future governments to try to claim any agreements are void/illegitimate, but I can totally see this being a hedge against such a thing.
They'll definately ask those living in the minor parts of the disputed regions controlled by Ukraine. Asking Russian citizens (who they perceive as traitors) in Russian land, I highly doubt.