Four areas of Russian-occupied Ukraine have started holding referenda, which Kyiv has condemned as illegitimate and seen as paving the way for Moscow to formally annex about 15 percent of Ukrainian territory.
Voting in Luhansk and Donetsk, self-proclaimed “independent republics” controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014, and in the southern provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhia will continue until September 27.
The voting process in the four regions would be unconventional, the Russian news agency TASS reported.
“Given the short deadlines and the lack of technical equipment, it was decided not to conduct electronic voting and to use the traditional paper ballots,” it said.
Authorities will go door-to-door collecting votes for the first four days and polling stations will not open until the last day for residents to cast their votes.
Russian-installed leaders of the four regions abruptly announced the plans on Tuesday after a lightning counteroffensive by Ukraine retook tracts of land in northeast Kharkiv that Russia had occupied after invading the country on February 24.
The results are considered a foregone conclusion in favor of the annexation, and Ukraine and its allies have already made it clear that they will not honor the result.
A similar referendum held in Crimea after Russia’s invasion of 2014 returned 97 percent in favor of formal annexation in a vote that took place under the close surveillance of Russian soldiers and was unrecognized by the international community.
The votes are seen as a major escalation of the seven-month-old war in Ukraine that has seen thousands killed and millions displaced because annexation would allow Moscow to claim it was defending its own territory.
“If this is all declared Russian territory, they can declare that this is a direct attack on Russia so they can fight without reservations,” Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian television.
The referendums were supported by the United Nations and world leaders including US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as international bodies such as NATO, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). sentenced.
Voting is scheduled to begin on Friday in referenda, which Kyiv has condemned as illegitimate. There will be no outside observers to ensure voting is free and fair [Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters]
The OSCE, which oversees the elections, said the results have no legal force as they do not comply with Ukrainian law or international standards and fighting continues in the areas where the polls are taking place.
“It’s all a farce”
There will be no independent monitors and polling stations in Zaporizhia will be closely guarded, local officials told the RIA news agency.
Some residents continued to walk ahead of the vote. Julia, who had fled Melitopol and preferred to use only her first name for fear of reprisals, traveled to Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhia, but left her parents behind.
She would tell Al Jazeera that they are part of an older generation that is nostalgic for the Soviet Union, which collapsed more than 30 years ago and included Ukraine. Russia recognized Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders as part of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
“I kept my children at home,” she said of life in the occupied city. “There was too much pressure on them at school. They would be punished if they spoke Ukrainian. I’m afraid I won’t be able to return home because people will need special permits to get in and out after the referendum.”
In the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk — the self-proclaimed republics that Putin recognized as independent just before the invasion — residents face accountability if they support their republic’s “entry into Russia,” according to TASS.
The question on the ballots in Kherson and Zaporizhia is worded differently: “Are you in favor of secession from Ukraine, the formation of an independent state by the region and its accession to the Russian Federation as a subject of the Russian Federation?”
“It’s all illusion. It’s all a farce orchestrated by Putin,” Kurt Volker, who was US special envoy for the Ukraine negotiations from 2017-2019 and is now a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told Al Jazeera. “I don’t think this will have any impact on the situation on the ground and will not change Ukraine’s determination to regain and retake territories. Nor will it harm the West’s determination to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression.”
A billboard above a street in Luhansk reads “Forever with Russia, September 27” ahead of the vote, which begins Friday and lasts through Tuesday [File: AP Photo]
Ukraine said the referenda were a sign of weakness rather than strength in Russia.
Russia controls most of Luhansk and Kherson, about 80 percent of Zaporizhia and only 60 percent of Donetsk.
A day after the referendums were announced, Putin ordered the mobilization of reservists to strengthen Russian forces in Ukraine and said he was ready to use nuclear weapons to repel any attack on Russian territory.
“Any decision that the Russian leadership might make will not change anything for Ukraine,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday.
“We are only interested in the tasks ahead of us. This is liberating our country, defending our people, and mobilizing global support [public opinion] to fulfill these tasks.”