KYIV, Sept 23 — Moscow-held regions of Ukraine were voting today on whether to become part of Russia, in referendums that Kyiv and its allies have condemned as an unlawful land grab.
Authorities are to go door-to-door for four days to collect votes. Polling stations will then open on Tuesday for residents to cast ballots on the final day of voting.Leonid, a 59-year-old military official, told AFP he came to vote"feeling happy". Today, Russian news agency TASS showed officials in courtyards of buildings in Donetsk notifying residents by loudspeaker that voting had started and surrounding a resident while he cast his ballot.Denis Pushilin, a pro-Russian separatist leader in the Donetsk region -- which makes up part of the industrial Donbass region -- said in a Telegram post that"Donbas is Russia".
Ballots in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia ask the question:"Are you in favour of secession from Ukraine, formation of an independent state by the region and its joining the Russian Federation as a subject of the Russian Federation?""Given the short deadlines and the lack of technical equipment, it was decided not to hold electronic voting and use the traditional paper ballots," TASS reported.
Putin said Moscow would use"all means" to protect its territory -- a statement that former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev said on social media would mean including"strategic nuclear weapons".
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