Russia rounds up Ukrainian voters at gunpoint for referendum

Kyiv, Ukraine — Residents of Russian-occupied eastern and southern Ukraine voted “under the barrel of a gun” as the staged referendum entered its second day, officials said Saturday. .

Voting in parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions will last for five days and end on Tuesday. The result is beyond doubt.

The so-called referendum is illegal under Ukrainian and international law and simply fails to meet basic democratic standards for free and fair elections. Western leaders, including President Biden, denounced the process as a “hoax” in preparation for Russia’s theft of Ukrainian land.

Speaking directly to the Russians in a speech Saturday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that “no trickery will help the occupiers”.

Moscow officials and their separatist proxies said they expected the vote to support the absorption of the areas, the Kremlin said, and that the process would be completed “quickly” once the results were officially announced.


four regions

where to play

referendum

About joining Russia

becoming a hero

annexed by Russia

Year 2014

The control area is or September. twenty three

Source: War Institute, AEI’s Critical Threats Program

Ukrainian reclaimed territory

by counterattack

four regions

where to play

referendum

join russia

becoming a hero

annexed by Russia

Year 2014

The control area is or September. twenty three

Source: War Institute, AEI’s Critical Threats Program

Ukrainian reclaimed territory

by counterattack

four regions

where to play

referendum

join russia

becoming a hero

annexed by Russia

Year 2014

The control area is or September. twenty three

Source: War Institute

The speed with which the referendum was announced and implemented, and the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russian reserves, all within a week, reflects the Kremlin’s acquiescence to its deteriorating position in Ukraine. After the February invasion of Ukraine. On the 24th, after failing to capture the capital Kyiv, Russian troops were repulsed in the northeast of the country and pressured on the front lines of the war.

Hundreds more were arrested Saturday during demonstrations against mobilization in Russia.

Zelensky’s switch to Russian for part of his speech Saturday night directly drew protesters. “Russian commanders don’t care about Russian lives – they just need to replenish the empty space left by the dead, wounded, fugitives or captured Russian soldiers,” he said.

Ukrainians who came into contact with relatives and friends in the occupied territories described a group of people armed with Kalashnikov rifles, accompanied by a person and carrying a portable ballot box, going from house to house in apartment blocks and houses.

“The referendum is taking place in the occupied city of Kherson, at the muzzle of an automatic rifle,” said Galina Lukhova, director of the military administration in Kherson, who now lives in Ukrainian-controlled territory. “They rang the doorbell of the apartment, knocked on the door of those who wouldn’t open it, and asked people to come out and make a sign that they agreed to join the Russian Federation.”

Lukhova said she spoke to 11 people still living in the Kherson area, who told her that they had pretended not to be at home or had been away from their apartments for long periods of time while armed groups patrolled around. “People are scared,” Lukhova said.

Propaganda newspaper shows how Russia facilitated annexation of Kharkiv

Serhii Nikitenko, a Ukrainian journalist who said he had spoken to three friends over the past two days, said mobile groups also visited schools, hospitals and other workplaces where officials “can collect a certain number of votes.”

In his late-night speech on Friday, Zelensky also called the referendum a “hoax” — echoing Western leaders.

“These are not just crimes against international law and Ukrainian law,” Zelensky said. “These are crimes against specific groups of people, against the country.”

Zelensky also said that the occupation authorities had begun to mobilize local Ukrainians to fight the Kyiv army and that Ukrainians should “by any means” avoid the prospect.

However, if they do end up being drafted into the army, Zelensky calls on them to “disrupt any enemy activity, obstruct any Russian action, give us any important information about the occupiers” and “switch to our Location. “

Meanwhile, Putin’s “partial mobilization” of Russians in support of Ukraine’s beleaguered military, announced last week, appears to have hit a snag.

Putin faces anger in Russia over military mobilization and prisoner swap

Many new enlisted videos have appeared stagger About drunkthrowing fists, yell at the officer’s office, curse When told to draw a line in Primorsky Territory in the Far East, curse They were handed rusted Kalashnikovs.

On Saturday, Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya and a close ally of Putin, appeared to acknowledge the low quality of recruits and said that half of Russia’s 5 million police and law enforcement officers should be called up.

Also on Saturday, at least 750 people were arrested at protests across the country, according to rights watchdog OVD-Info. Independent Russian media released videos of police beating protesters, most of them young, before dragging them into police cars. According to OVD-Info, the total number of arrests since Putin’s mobilization announcement is 2,080.

Many of those arrested earlier this week have been summoned to serve in Russia’s military, state media reported.

A military recruitment office in the Krasnoyarsk region is one of at least 10 attacks in towns across Russia since the mobilization was announced, local media ChP Kansk reported.

At the same time, Putin signed a law that strengthens the penalties for desertion and “voluntary surrender” during military operations. He also fast-tracked Russian citizenship for foreigners fighting against Ukraine — a move aimed at attracting many immigrant workers in Russia from former Soviet Central Asian countries. On Wednesday, however, the Moscow embassies of those countries warned their citizens that it was illegal to participate in foreign wars.

Ukrainian officials said their armed forces continued to make progress in the south and east of the country, but could not verify this information because journalists were banned from reporting from front-line positions.

On Friday, Zelensky said Russian forces were sending Iranian-made drones to strike the Dnipropetrovsk region in southeastern Ukraine and the city of Odessa on the Black Sea. Previously, U.S. officials said Tehran had supplied Russia with combat drones.

Zelensky promised a “tough response” and “consequential consequences” for “cooperating with evil”. On Friday, Ukrainian officials announced they had disqualified Iran’s ambassador to Ukraine and moved to drastically reduce the number of personnel at the Iranian embassy in Kyiv.

Tehran officials said Saturday they regretted the Ukrainians’ move, which they said was based on “unconfirmed reports” and “media manipulation.”

With the staged referendum underway, Russian officials have tried to make the process look legitimate, using a playbook in previous well-planned votes, such as a similar staged referendum on Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.

Russian media showed photos of people queuing outside polling stations, but Ukrainian officials said they had either entered by bus from elsewhere or were soldiers in plainclothes. So-called international observers bless the proceedings. One of them, Eliseo Bertolasi, from Italy, observed the 2018 elections in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the unrecognized Moscow-backed separatist state in eastern Ukraine.

A day later, election officials said about 15 percent of voters in Russia-controlled areas had cast ballots, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Lukhova said her contacts “wept and cried” because of what was happening: the staged referendum and the prospect of Russia trying to annex the region.

“Russia is trying to paint a picture where Kherson doesn’t exist,” she said. “People just grit their teeth, clench their fists, and wait for the Ukrainian armed forces to liberate the city.”

Dixon reported from Riga, Latvia. Nick Parker and Maria Sacchetti in Washington contributed to this report.

Ukraine war: what you need to know

Newest: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization” of the military in his Sept. 9 national address. On the 21st, the move was characterized as an attempt to defend Russia’s sovereignty against the West, which was trying to use Ukraine as a tool to “divide and destroy Russia.” Follow us here for live updates.

Fight: A successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent days has forced Russia into a massive retreat in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, as troops flee cities and villages they have occupied since the early days of the war and abandon vast quantities of military equipment.

Merger referendum: The staged referendum, which is illegal under international law, will begin on September 1. According to the Russian news agency, from the 23rd to the 27th local time, the separate regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The Moscow-appointed government will start another staged referendum in Kherson on Friday.

photo: Photographers for The Washington Post have been on the ground since the war began — some of their most influential work.

How you can help: Here’s how Americans can help support the people of Ukraine, and people around the world have been giving.

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