U.S. expects Russia to prepare sham referenda in Ukraine -State Dept

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government has assessed that Moscow is preparing to stage sham referenda in areas of Ukraine under its control to manipulate the results to claim that the Ukrainian people want to join Russia, the State Department said on Tuesday.

Polling data show that in a free referendum, Ukrainians would choose not to join Russia, department spokesman Vedant Patel said at a daily news briefing.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chris Reese)