The Kremlin appears to have sent soldiers to force Ukrainians to vote at gunpoint in its staged referendums, according to local residents, who say troops have come to their homes in the occupied territories to enforce the “vote”.
“My family was just forced to vote at gunpoint in Russian costume for a ‘referendum’ in southern Ukraine,” said Maxim Eristavi, journalist and co-founder of Hromadske International, a radio station in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian journalist released a video allegedly showing armed soldiers entering the hallways where his family lives, forcing them to vote to join Russia.
Western countries have accused Russia of holding illegitimate referendums in Ukraine as a pretext for annexing parts of its neighbor.
Kyiv described the exercise as a blunt attempt by Russia to hold occupied territory now threatened by the Ukrainian army’s counteroffensive.
Eristavi added that his family members were also forced to take part in the same drills in Crimea that Russia annexed in 2014 – in an attempt to fool foreign audiences that voting was free and fair.
Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Crimea are all Ukrainian regions at least partially under Russian occupation where referendums are being held – with Moscow-determined results.
Russian state media said the armed guards enforcing door-to-door voting are there for “security reasons”.
The predetermined outcome would result in Ukrainian territory becoming an “independent” country under Russian law before quickly joining the Russian Federation as a “federal subject,” state Kremlin media said.
A Ukrainian journalist has released a video allegedly showing Russian troops invading his family’s residence before forcing them to take part in “sham” referendums in the occupied territories of Ukraine
Ukraine and Western countries have accused Russia of holding illegitimate referendums on foreign soil as a pretext for annexing parts of its neighbor
A copy of the ballots given to people asking whether they agree to become part of Russia or not
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said regions where voting is ongoing would be under Moscow’s “full protection” if annexed by Russia.
He said any territory that becomes “further entrenched” in Russia will be “under the full protection of the state.”
According to Kyiv, residents were forced to vote in the four-day vote and prevented from leaving their area.
The votes allow Putin to tell his own people the narrative that any Ukrainian attack trying to retake its territories is an attack on Russia itself – allowing the Kremlin to justify a mass mobilization against which more than 2,000 Russians were arrested for protesting.
More footage surfaced of armed troops entering residents’ homes during the voting days.
Serhiy Haidai, governor of occupied Luhansk, said some cities under Russian occupation had been put under full lockdown to ensure people voted – with any crosses in the “No” column recorded in a “notebook”.
A woman in Melitopol told the BBC there was one ballot for the whole household and not for individual residents.
Meanwhile, state media reported that 97 percent of people in two of those regions – Donetsk and Luhansk – support joining Russia.
Chechen soldiers are showing up in the homes of Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories, trying to force them to vote in Putin-ordered sham referendum for the annexation of Ukrainian lands to the Russian Federation. pic.twitter.com/YJD6P4gxvu
— Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) September 24, 2022
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Russian officials had set targets for fabricated turnouts in advance.
Ballot boxes have also been opened across Russia itself, ostensibly to allow displaced Ukrainians to vote, but in reality offering more opportunities for electoral fraud.
According to state media, the in-person vote will take place on September 27 only. But the result is not in doubt.
“The United States will never recognize Ukrainian territory as anything other than a part of Ukraine,” President Biden said in a press release.
“Russia’s referendums are a sham – a false pretext to try to annex parts of Ukraine by force in a flagrant violation of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations.”
Votes are taking place in four areas currently under Russian control – Donetsk and Luhansk, which together make up Donbass, and Kherson and Zaporizhia
Valentina Matviyenko, Speaker of Russia’s Upper House, said residents of the occupied territories would vote in the “life or death” referendums.
Denis Pushilin, separatist leader of the Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region, called Friday’s referendum “a historic milestone”.
Addressing the occupied regions in an online statement on Friday, Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, said: “If you decide to become part of the Russian Federation, we will support you.”
Western leaders have called the referenda a sham and said they have no legitimacy, while urging other governments not to recognize the results.
A Russian mercenary wearing the symbol of the notorious Wagner military group stands guard outside a polling station in occupied Ukraine
Putin declared the “partial mobilization” of the Russian population and forced hundreds of thousands of men into military service after the Ukrainian army retook large swaths of territory occupied by Russia in the brutal war sparked on February 25.
New laws have extended soldiers’ contracts indefinitely, meaning they can’t just quit if they don’t want to keep fighting.
As voting began in the occupied territories, Russian social media sites were full of dramatic scenes of tearful families saying goodbye to men leaving military mobilization centers.
In cities across the vast country, men hugged their weeping family members before departing as part of conscription.
“Russian commanders don’t care about the lives of Russians – they only have to fill in the gaps left by the dead, wounded, escaped or captured Russian soldiers,” Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Russian anti-war activists were planning further protests against the mobilization.