The Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions also informed about the start of voting. “We’re coming home! Good luck, friends,” said Vladimir Rogov, a representative of the region deployed by Russia in Zaporizhia, at the opening of the polling stations in the morning. A mock referendum is also scheduled for the southern Ukrainian region of Cherson. Hundreds of thousands of people have until September 27 to cast their votes.
The exact course of what the West and the Ukrainian government have described as a sham referendum is unclear, as the areas are not fully occupied by Russian troops. Ukrainian governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Gajday, reported that in the Russian-held town of Bilovodsk, an official said the referendum was mandatory. Anyone who does not cast their vote will lose their job and will be reported to the security authorities. In Starobilsk, the Russian authorities had ordered that people were not allowed to leave the city until Tuesday. Armed groups would search homes and force residents to vote.
In any case, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Friday that the areas would be annexed quickly. At the same time, he repeated that attempts by Ukraine to take back the areas would be interpreted as an attack on the Russian Federation. Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin had already declared that he would defend the areas with all means – including the use of nuclear weapons.
At the same time, Peskov made it clear that there is currently no basis for negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. Putin has said that the Ukrainian government has withdrawn from the talks and has decided to settle the conflict on the “battlefield”. Putin reacted to this, said Peskov.
Russia wants to incorporate the territories with the help of the sham referendums and invokes the “right of peoples to self-determination”. Neither Ukraine nor the international community recognize the vote under occupying Russia. These are sham referendums because they are being held without Ukraine’s consent, under martial law and not according to democratic principles. Free work by international independent observers is also not possible.
Ukraine has described the sham referendums as a “Kremlin propaganda show”. “Today there is no legal process in the occupied territories that can be called a ‘referendum,'” Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter. The “show” only serves as a background for the partial mobilization in Russia. At the same time, Podoljak said that the occupied areas must be liberated “immediately”.
Internationally, the sham referendums met with clear rejection. Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of unacceptable “sham referendums” whose results were not recognized. Austria’s Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen also condemned the votes as “violating international law”. “On the one hand, it is important to keep our nerves, but at the same time to make it very clear to the Russian government: This is not a measure that we accept, that we simply take note of. This annexation of occupied areas is legally and politically a nullum.” , emphasized Van der Bellen on the sidelines of an election campaign.
The heads of state and government of the seven leading democratic economic powers (G7) condemned the sham referendums on Friday in the strongest possible terms. They also expressed their regret at the partial mobilization of the armed forces in Russia. The sham referendums are being used as a “false pretext” to change the status of sovereign Ukrainian territory that has fallen victim to Russian aggression, they said on Friday. “These actions are a clear breach of the United Nations Charter and international law,” it said.
The sham referenda started by Russia and its deputies on Friday have no legitimacy whatsoever. The Russian approach disregards “democratic norms” with its “open intimidation of the local population”. The votes did not reflect the will of the Ukrainian people, who have consistently resisted Russian attempts to change borders by force. “We will never recognize these referendums,” assured the heads of state and government. An expected annexation of the areas will also never be accepted.
In addition to Germany, the G7 also includes the USA, Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan.