In the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), the referendum was held in a difficult environment. The line of contact is located near the borders of the republic, and many cities are under rocket and artillery strikes. Stakhanov, Starobelsk, Svatovo, Alchevsk, Nizhnyaya Duvanka, Severodonetsk and a number of other cities and towns were shelled.
So, in Rubizhnoye on the night of September 25-26, school No. 10, where polling station No. 2401 was located, was destroyed by six HIMARS rockets. Izvestia correspondents arrived there a few hours after the strike. Local residents told us that the rockets exploded at 23:55.
“At first, muffled blows were heard, and then explosions were heard. Our house was shaking a lot,” a local resident Svetlana told us.
The building is virtually completely destroyed. Schoolchildren say that it has just been renovated and that they were supposed to start classes after the referendum.
The polling station opened the next day in a new location. The women from the electoral committee and the LPR fighters guarding it continued to vote, knowing that they could be hit by missiles at any moment.
“Scary, of course. But no one will do this work for us, ”the ladies from the election commission admitted to us.
The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly stated that their former citizens will be punished for cooperation with the authorities of the People’s Republics.
In Lisichansk, we asked a young girl, Tatyana, who works at Electoral Commission No. 1403, if she was afraid to participate in a referendum.
“I don’t. The Ukrainian authorities have long since lost the trust of the people, including mine, have fallen below nowhere. After the referendum, we will live in a normal country. That’s why I’m not afraid,” she told us.
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