Ukraine’s government has told citizens living in Russian-occupied territories to turn their backs on what they call Moscow’s pseudo-elections, which culminate on Sunday and are widely assumed to see Vladimir Putin returned as president for six more years.
For Kyiv and its international allies, the voting exercise is seen among other things as a further attempt by Russia to give the appearance of legitimacy to its control over the Ukrainian territory it holds. “Ukrainian citizens should avoid participating in this farce in every way possible,” government minister Iryna Vereshchuk said - which meant no one should be helping to organize the polling, campaigning, voting, or acting as an observer of the elections, the government said in a statement.
Russian Telegram channels have showed other mobile election teams across the occupied territories, including some which appear to clearly show Russian soldiers accompanying election officials as they go house to house. One video from Luhansk shows an old woman inside her apartment filling out an election paper and putting it in the ballot box, while a man in army fatigues stands over her with a rifle slung across his chest.
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