Russia is holding elections to the State Duma for the first time in territories of Ukraine occupied after 2022
Kyiv • UNN
Russia is holding voting in the occupied parts of four regions of Ukraine. Kyiv called the elections illegal and urged others not to recognize them.
Russia is holding elections to the State Duma for the first time in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, which Moscow declared annexed after the start of its full-scale invasion. Ukraine called the vote illegal and urged the world not to recognize its results, Associated Press reports, as cited by UNN.
Details
The areas in question are the occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Russia claims that there are allegedly more than 3.5 million voters in these territories.
Although the main three-day voting period in Russia began on September 18, voting in the occupied territories of Ukraine began as early as the end of August. The Russian authorities explained the extended voting period by citing security concerns.
Voting under the supervision of armed soldiers
According to AP, at one polling station in the occupied part of Donetsk region, people cast their ballots into a ballot box under the supervision of an armed Russian soldier. Ukrainian human rights defenders also report that local residents were coerced into participating in the vote.
Russia is also holding the vote in temporarily occupied Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
The dictator of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, separately emphasized the participation of the occupied Ukrainian territories in the elections, stating that their residents would vote for State Duma deputies for the first time after the so-called "reunification with Russia."
Ukraine called on foreign states and international organizations to recognize neither the holding of Russian elections in the occupied territories nor their results. Ukrainians were also warned that participation in organizing the illegal vote could have criminal consequences.