Zelensky: if a “pseudo-referendum” is held in the occupied territories, Ukraine will stop negotiations with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv would stop negotiations with Russia if "pseudo-referendums" were held anywhere on Ukrainian territory. So he answered the question about the impending, according to the Ukrainian authorities, "referendum" on the proclamation of the "Kherson People's Republic" in the occupied Kherson region.

If our people in Mariupol are destroyed, if a referendum, a pseudo-referendum is announced in the new pseudo-republics, Ukraine will withdraw from any negotiation processes. <...> This is definitely the wrong step on the part of Russia. This says that everything that happened before - all these meetings of groups of diplomats - is fiction and just theater, with very bad actors.

Zelensky called on residents of the occupied territories "not to help the occupiers."

• According to the Ukrainian military , Russia is going to hold a "referendum" in the Kherson region on the proclamation of "KhNR" on April 27.