Kherson Region Eyes Split from Ukraine

By Staff, Agencies

The southern Ukrainian Kherson Region may hold a vote to establish whether its people want to break away from Kiev and ask Moscow to accept it as a new region of Russia.

On Tuesday, a petition to put the question to a plebiscite was sent to Vladimir Saldo, who leads the administration in the region, which has mostly been under Russian control for months. The call came from a public council, which is tasked with representing the local people.

Earlier, the head of the so-called military-civilian administration, Kirill Stremousov, said the region’s residents “want guarantees that we will become a part of the Russian Federation.”

People of Kherson “are afraid that Russia might leave,” Stremousov said.

The Tuesday's announcement on the self-determination vote comes on the heels of similar developments in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the two Donbass regions that Moscow recognizes as sovereign states.