Shooting for refusing to vote for the Russian Federation: how pseudo-referendums are held in the occupation
In the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the Russian occupiers have started holding pseudo-referendums, with the help of which the Russian Federation wants to “officially recognize” the captured regions.
The Kremlin calls fictitious voting in the occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions a so-called “expression of the will of citizens”.
However, already in the morning, in particular, in Mariupol and Kherson, the movement of heavy equipment of the Russian army is recorded, and at the “polling stations” there are more guards than people who seem to want to join Russia.
Currently, there is no accurate information about the presence of international or other independent observers who could in any way monitor the course of the “voting”. However, local residents are already reporting that Russian soldiers are going from house to house with weapons and forcing people to vote for joining the territories to Russia.
Citizens say that the invaders can shoot or imprison them for refusing to check the box for the Russian Federation. So, in Melitopol, machine gunners are forcing you to vote “correctly,” Mayor Ivan Fedorov said.
According to him, there have been recorded cases when gunmen knock on doors, enter apartments and demand to prepare passports. Frightened local residents are told where to put a mark on the pseudo-ballot.
Moscow-backed administrations in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions are holding pseudo-votes that contradict international law and the UN charter, in the midst of Europe’s biggest war in decades.
Despite this, Ukrainians are not afraid to oppose the Russians and urge other citizens not to vote for Russia. Local residents believe that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will soon liberate the occupied territories and expel Russian troops from Ukraine.
