Kyiv, Ukraine — Voting began Friday in Moscow-held parts of Ukraine on referendums to become part of Russia, Russian-backed officials there announced.
The Kremlin-orchestrated referendums, which have been widely criticized by Ukraine and the West as shams without any legal validity, are considered as a step toward annexing the areas by Russia.
The voting are being held in the Luhansk, Kherson and the partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk areas.
The ballot, which asks locals if they want their regions to be part of Russia, are certain to go Moscow’s way. That would provide the Kremlin the justification to argue that attempts by Ukrainian forces to regain control are strikes on Russia itself, substantially intensifying the seven-month war.
FILE – A military truck drives through a street with a poster that reads: “With Russia forever, September 27”, preparatory of a referendum in Luhansk, Luhansk People’s Republic controlled by Russia-backed separatists, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Four occupied districts in Ukraine are slated to start voting Friday Sept. 23, 2022 in Kremlin-engineered referendums on whether to become part of Russia, setting the groundwork for Moscow to annex the territory in a major escalation of the nearly seven-month war. / AP
The referendums follow Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authorization of a partial mobilization, which may bring approximately 300,000 Russian troops to the conflict. The balloting will continue for five days through Tuesday.
As the ballots were getting underway in the occupied regions, Russian social media sites were full of dramatic photos of grieving families bidding farewell to men departing from military mobilization facilities. In places across the wide country, men hugged their grieving family members before departing as part of the conscription.
Russian anti-war activists, in the meantime, planned fresh rallies against the mobilization. Widespread rallies that followed the announcement of the partial call-up have seen more than 1,000 arrests, according to an independent monitor group. Flights leaving Russia were claimed to be filling up and lineups of outgoing traffic at the border with Finland and other countries were kilometers long at one point. Traffic was still high Friday morning, the Reuters news agency said.
Russian police detain demonstrators during an unsanctioned protest march against President Vladimir Putin’s partial national military mobilization amid the conflict in Ukraine, September 21, 2022, in Moscow, Russia. Getty
Election officials will be transporting ballots to people’s homes and putting up makeshift polling stations near residential buildings during the first four days of the referendums, according to Russian-installed officials in the seized territories, who cited safety considerations. Tuesday will be the sole day when the voters will be invited to come to normal polls.
Polls also began in Russia, where refugees from the seized regions can cast their votes.
Denis Pushilin, separatist head of Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region, dubbed the referendum on Friday “a historical milestone.”
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia’s lower chamber of parliament, the State Duma, addressed the seized regions Friday in an online statement, saying: “If you chose to become part of the Russian Federation – we will back you.”
Valentina Matviyenko, chair of Russia’s upper parliament house, warned that inhabitants of the occupied territories were voting for “life or death” at the referendums.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only briefly mentioned the “fake referenda” in his evening address in which he shifted from speaking in Ukrainian to Russian to directly inform Russian nationals they are being “thrown to their deaths.”
“You are already accomplices in all these atrocities, deaths and torture of Ukrainians,” he stated. “Because you were silent. Because you are silent. And now it’s time for you to select. For males in Russia, this is a choice to die or live, to become a cripple or to keep health. For women in Russia, the decision is to lose their husbands, sons, grandchildren forever, or still strive to protect them from death, from war, from one person.”
The voting takes place amid the backdrop of persistent warfare in Ukraine, with Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanging fire as both sides refuse to give ground.
On Friday morning, pro-Russia officials in the Zaporizhzhia region reported a loud bomb in the center of Melitopol, a city that Moscow captured early in the war. Official Vladimir Rogov didn’t offer any details as to what caused the explosion and whether there were damage and casualties.
Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region also accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the city of Donetsk, the area’s seat, and the nearby city of Yasynuvata.
Ukrainian officials, in turn, reported further rounds of Russian shelling in several locations of the nation. Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv area in southern Ukraine that borders the Kherson region, claimed explosions went out in the city of Mykolaiv in the early hours of Friday.
Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk district, stated the Russians began a barrage of artillery on Nikopol, a city across from the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, on Friday morning