Ukraine’s intelligence raises the alarm over Russia’s propaganda campaigns in southern Ukrainian regions as  Moscow edges closer to the ‘active phase’ of the  referendum campaign aiming to annex occupied southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya,

In a statement on Tuesday, the SBU said the Russian occupational officials can reportedly use the pro-Russian public group known as ‘Donetskaya respublica’ – the group that has some 1000 activists in occupied Donetsk is now actively campaigning in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, trying  to drum up support for the sham vote.

‘Factually, they are recruiting people and urging them to join the organization. Their outreach now amounts to 200 thousand of local residents,’ said the SBU, adding the occupational officials are planning to engage local media to have more sway on public opinion.

Another part of the Moscow’s design is bringing to the regions its ‘experts’ and ‘volunteers’ tasked with staging public meetings promoting the sham referendum. Such meetings can be also used later to make ‘appeals’ for making Donets region part of Russia.

The agressors also stooped to mere bribery offering people food aid, mobile phone deals along with its propaganda leaflets to brainwash the locals.

‘For widening the outreach of separatists’ ideas, the enemy plans to create a broad network of so-called ‘activists’ in Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, and Dnipro regions. So they could later, if needed, to scale up their saboteur activities,’ said the SBU.