(Reuters) – Russian-installed authorities commenced regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine that Russia claims as its own, aiming to solidify Moscow’s authority in what it refers to as its “new territories” despite the ongoing conflict.
Russia lacks full control over any of the four regions where the voting is taking place – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Together with Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, these areas comprise almost 20% of Ukraine.
During a vote last October at the United Nations General Assembly, three-quarters of countries condemned what they referred to as Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of these four regions.
Ukrainian officials deem the elections as illegal and emphasize that they showcase the reason why holding any peace talks with Moscow is impossible until Russia withdraws all its troops from Ukrainian territory.
In all four regions, Moscow-appointed governors, consisting of a mixture of long-standing pro-Russian politicians and others with local recognition, are seeking full terms of office in the polls, which conclude on September 10 when Russia holds its own regional elections.
These governors all enjoy the endorsement of Russian President Vladimir Putin, having enthusiastically joined the Kremlin’s United Russia bloc in recent months, and they face minimal opposition.
In the Donetsk region port city of Mariupol, which was seized by Russia in May 2022 after months of siege, Reuters witnessed electoral officials setting up a temporary polling booth on Thursday in the courtyard of a residential complex.
A few residents came out to cast their votes, presenting newly-distributed Russian passports to officials while police officers were present.
Many individuals have fled the Russian-occupied territory, which has experienced some of the worst damage during the conflict.
The exiled mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, informed Reuters that people from the city, from which he escaped on February 26, 2022, two days after Russia’s invasion, had informed him that there were no voter lists or candidate lists.
“It is evident that people do not trust this process, which should be called a sham election,” he stated in an interview in Kyiv, adding that he anticipated a repetition of the events that occurred during the annexation votes last year.
“The Russian-appointed officials will go from apartment to apartment, as they did before, speaking to people. Two soldiers nearby are armed with machine guns and they tell people that they must vote,” he remarked.
Reuters could not immediately verify his account.
MOSCOW ANTICIPATES SIGNIFICANT VICTORY
Voting also commenced on Thursday in the Zaporizhzhia region, whose Russian-installed governor Yevgeny Balitsky engaged in talks with Putin in August, broadcasted on state television, during which he assured that the province would deliver an overwhelmingly pro-Kremlin vote.
“We are confident that United Russia will receive the result it deserves in the elections,” said Balitsky, a former pro-Russian member of the Ukrainian parliament whose region is at the forefront of the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive. Only about 80% of it is controlled by Russia.
Russian-installed authorities in the four regions have extended the voting period over multiple days, citing the need to minimize danger to voters.
Data published by a Kremlin-controlled pollster in early August revealed that United Russia candidates were projected to receive at least 80% of the vote in all four regions. According to the independent Russian news site iStories, only around half of United Russia’s candidates in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions are locals, while the rest are from Russia.
Last year, Moscow claimed that the four territories returned overwhelming votes in favor of annexation by Russia in “referendums” which Ukraine and its Western allies characterized as fraudulent.
(Reporting by Felix Light and Felix Hoske; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Credit: The Star : News Feed
