KHERSON, September 23. /TASS/. The air defense grouping in the Kherson Region has been strengthened for the period of the referendum, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the region's military-civilian administration, told reporters on Friday.
"Voting takes place in the normal mode. Many security decisions have been made: several terrorist attacks that could have interrupted the process of expression of will have been prevented literally within two days. As you can see, the referendum is proceeding normally. We cannot give a hundred percent security guarantee, we cannot guarantee that some HIMARS missile will not reach it, but 99.9% of all security conditions have been met. This was a priority issue during the referendum. The air defense system has been strengthened, but we can't rely on air defense alone, though it works to the maximum. The whole area is protected," he said.
Earlier, authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, as well as the administrations of the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, have decided to hold referendums on becoming part of Russia. Voting in all these territories takes place from September 23 to 27.