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.
“Do not engage in collaboration, do not help the occupiers to hold fake elections,” Vereshchuk added, warning that those who did so willingly were breaking Ukrainian law, though forced participation was not unlawful.
In-person voting has been underway since Friday, but Sunday is expected to see the largest number of polling stations open in Crimea as well as those parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are also under Russian occupation.
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.
Elsewhere, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed head in occupied Kherson, reported a 50-year-old woman had been killed by a drone strike in the town of Kakhovka, which sits on the Dnipro River.
Ukraine says Moscow will fabricate the final results and insists that the majority of people living under Russian occupation are choosing not to take part in the poll.
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