Occupied Ukraine holds Kremlin-staged vote on joining Russia

  • 📰 9NewsAUS
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 78 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 34%
  • Publisher: 72%

Australia News News

A Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway in occupied regions of Ukraine that sought to make them part of Russia - with some officials carrying ballots to apartment blocks accompanied by gun-toting police. 9News

, with some officials carrying ballots to apartment blocks accompanied by gun-toting police. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow., UN experts and Ukrainian officials pointed to new evidence of Russian war crimes. Kharkiv region officials said a mass burial site in the eastern city of Izium held hundreds of bodies, including at least 30 displaying signs of torture.

Citing safety reasons, election officials carried ballots to homes and set up mobile polling stations for the four-day voting period. Russian state TV showed one such election team accompanied by a masked police officer carrying an assault rifle. Lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's State Duma, said in an online statement to the regions: “If you decide to become part of the Russian Federation, we will support you.”

“You are already accomplices in all these crimes, murders and torture of Ukrainians,” he said. “Because you were silent. Because you are silent. And now it’s time for you to choose. For men in Russia, this is a choice to die or live, to become a cripple or to preserve health. For women in Russia, the choice is to lose their husbands, sons, grandchildren forever, or still try to protect them from death, from war, from one person.

Other Russian men tried desperately to leave the country, buying up scarce plane tickets and creating traffic jams hours or even days long at some borders. The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and walked - just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on February 24.

Russian forces occupied Izium for six months before being pushed out by a Ukrainian counteroffensive this month. The exhumations, which began a week ago, are nearing an end, as investigators work on identifying victims and how they died. A mobile DNA lab was parked at the edge of the burial site.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Really … so we have reports of US/UK possible involvement in negatively influencing peace talks; as well as reports of years of “abuse” (some saying genocide) heaped on the people of Donbas by Ukraine? & you fail to mention it. &

It’s a free vote as long as you vote for Putin’s murdering party!

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 10. in AU

Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Occupied parts of Ukraine vote in referendums on joining RussiaResults are seen as a foregone conclusion in favour of annexation, and Ukraine and its allies have already made clear they will not recognise the votes How can one vote in wartime, without the appropriate infrastructure? The media would be wise to call this what it is: illegitimate propaganda from Russia. The west has blood on its hands for funding and prolonging this war and the killing of people.
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

Moscow-held regions in Ukraine vote on whether to join RussiaThe result of the referendum — on whether the four regions become part of Russia — is expected to be a foregone conclusion in favour of the Moscow-held regions joining Russia. They are not voting, theyre participating in a stunt When nazis in Ukraine have been attacking the people of Eastern Ukraine since 2014 I wonder who they will vote for? The nazis and Zelensky or Putin? And a vote against Azov maybe.
Source: abcnews - 🏆 5. / 83 Read more »

Ukraine war latest news: referendums begin in occupied regions; Zelenskiy urges Russian protestsVoting began at 8am in four regions of Ukraine under Moscow’s control, says Russian state media; Ukraine president tells Russians facing mobilisation to protest, fight back or run away
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

What happened in the Russia-Ukraine war this week? Catch up with the must-read news and analysisProtests after Russia calls up reservists and repeats nuclear threats; ‘referendums’ announced for four occupied regions; and life after liberation
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »