MOSCOW: Russian-appointed authorities on Thursday began holding regional elections in parts of Ukraine that Russia claimed last year, seeking to consolidate Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the ongoing conflict.
Russia does not fully control any of the four voting regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. Together with Crimea – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – it makes up almost a fifth of Ukraine.
Three-quarters of countries at the UN General Assembly last October condemned what they called Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of the four regions.
Ukrainian officials say the election is also illegal and shows why it is impossible to hold peace talks with Moscow until Russia withdraws all its troops from Ukrainian territory.
In all four regions, Moscow-based governors, a mix of veteran pro-Russian politicians and others known only locally, are seeking full terms in polls that end on September 10, when Russia holds regional polls.
All the governors are running with the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in recent months joined the Kremlin’s United Russia bloc with fanfare, and face only nominal opposition.
In the port city of Mariupol in the Donetsk region, which Russia captured in May 2022 after a brutal months-long siege, Reuters saw election officials set up a temporary polling station in the courtyard of a residential complex on Thursday.
A trickle of residents came out to cast their vote, showing the newly issued Russian passports to the officials while the police stood by.
Many people fled the Russian-occupied territory, which suffered some of the worst damage during the conflict.
Vadym Boichenko, the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, told news agency that people from the city fled on February 26, 2022, two days after the Russian invasion and there were no voter lists and no candidate lists.
“It is clear that this process, which should be called a sham election, does not trust the people,” he said in an interview in Kyiv, adding that he expected a repeat of what he said happened in the annexation vote last year.
“They (Russian-appointed officials) will go from apartment to apartment, as they did before, talking to people. Two soldiers are standing nearby with machine guns, telling people that they have to vote,” he said.
