Russian attack | “If we come to the door with a gun, then we will vote” – This is how the “referendum” on the annexation of the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia proceeds

in Ukraine Russia conducts so-called “referendums” in its occupied territories. Their purpose is to join Luhansk, Donetsk Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to Russia. At the same time, the fighting in the regions continues.

According to the information obtained by HS, residential buildings are mostly empty in Hersonis, and mostly old people have stayed in the city. Some have been offered money for voting, which is welcome for people in a difficult financial situation. However, the HS interviewee did not know anyone who had gone to vote themselves.

“If we come to the front door with a gun, then we will vote”, the interviewee had said that his acquaintances had said.

HS received the information by phone on Sunday from a Ukrainian living abroad, who had been in contact with his acquaintances in Hersoniss. HS did not manage to reach the locals directly. Many locals have been given a Russian sim card and people fear that their calls are being tapped.

The names of the interviewee or local people are not disclosed in this story for security reasons.

Also the Ukrainian news agency Unian tells polling stations gaping at their emptiness and locals avoiding having to vote. The issue is also reported by the Russian opposition media Meduza and the American one The New York Times.

I dream tellsthat people from Crimea are brought in droves to vote in the Kherson region.

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Polling stations from nothingness tells also Ukrainian Armed Forces on Facebook. Due to the small number of voters, workers at the points and armed Russian soldiers collect signatures from locals directly at their doorsteps.

According to media reports, those who refuse to vote have been threatened with deportation in Melitopol. Ukrainian governor of Luhansk and head of the military administration Serhi Haidai tells According to Unian on its Telegram channel, armed soldiers are going from door to door and threatening to break down the doors if they are not opened.

Melitopol city manager Ivan Fedorov according to the forces going around the doors pressuring him to vote in favor of joining Russia. However, the residents do not open their doors, and many have hidden in nearby villages to avoid having to vote, Fedorov says.

of the Union by However, Russian troops have prevented most of the residents from leaving the area.

Deputy Director of Herson Regional Council Yuri Sobolevsky says that some have already had to vote twice. He says that people would also have been made to vote on behalf of their entire family. In Mariupol, people are pressured to vote under the threat of dismissal, tells Ukrainska Pravda magazine.

Head of the Ukrainian military administration of Kherson Yaroslav Janushevich give instructions In Telegram, residents are asked not to open the door and appeal to get sick, for example, coronavirus or tuberculosis.

Fedorov says that some of the residents of Melitopol have oiled their doors as a protest to stain the hands of the Russian troops patrolling the doors.

Information from The News York Times by postal and electronic voting are also apparently in use, although many areas do not even have electricity or mail.

“The so-called referendum is more of an opinion survey carried out with machine guns,” Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, wrote in Telegram on Saturday.

Russian the picture of the situation conveyed by the state media is quite different. On Saturday evening, the front page of the Russian news agency Tassi was full of news that praised the voting arrangements in the occupied territories, the transparency of the voting and the high turnout.

According to Tassi, there were no violations recorded at any polling station on Saturday, and foreign election observers from the United States, Italy and Germany praised the “high-quality arrangements” of the voting. For example, a person from the United States had been invited as foreign observers Wyatt Reedwho is a reporter for the Russian state news agency Sputnik.

The turnout is expected to be high, at least officially. The voting turnout in the Luhansk region was already 45.86 percent as of eight o’clock on Saturday evening, tells Tass. At that time, voting had continued for two days and, according to Tassi, 624,000 residents had cast their votes.

Public supervision of the vote is handled by the Coordination Council of the Russian Citizens’ Chamber Alexander Malkevich by the high voter turnout has come as a “shock” to the West. According to Malkevich, the West “doesn’t argue anymore [äänestyksen] not about the results, but about their legal grounds”.

Occupied the annexation of regions to Russia is voted on not only in the regions themselves but also in Russia.

Interfax by The Central Election Commission of Russia has organized polling stations for Russia as well. Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskovalkova by it is logical that the refugees “evacuated from Donbas” are given opportunities to vote in Russia.

The announcement of the Duma by Residents of Kherson and Zaporizhia can also vote in the Moscow offices of the “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Tass on the other hand tells, that there are four polling stations in St. Petersburg where voting has been lively. According to Tassi, they have also been visited by “deeply impressed” foreign election observers from different parts of the world.

The perfectly smooth votes are overshadowed only by “Kiev’s military provocations” and fake news. Tassi was announced by the Donetsk Central Election Committee bythat “Kiev shooting legitimizes the referendum”.

The vote the result seemed to be very clear. Tass announced, based on an anonymous Duma source, that the bill on the annexation of the regions to Russia would be brought to the Duma on Wednesday next week.

Duma deputy Mikhail Sheremet by the experience of annexing the illegally seized Crimean peninsula in 2014 will help in the annexation of new territories. In Sheremet’s opinion, integration into Russia will go faster thanks to the experience gained in Crimea.

“As a representative of Crimea, I feel deja-vu; I see the events of 2014 repeating themselves. I see enthusiasm in people who have been dreaming for eight long years that this day would come”, Šeremet said According to the cup.

According to Sheremet, Crimea is now “one of the most flourishing regions of Russia, which has fundamentally changed in eight years.”

Russian organized “referendums” started on Friday, September 23, at eight o’clock in the morning Moscow time. They continue until Tuesday, September 27.

The regions may be annexed to Russia as early as September 30. The matter was announced on Saturday Tass referring to its source in the State Duma.

On Saturday, the voting was just underway and there was no information about the official results. On Sunday, Tass reported that in the Zaporizhia region, 93 percent voted in favor of joining Russia on the first day.

The source of the cup by the annexation bill would be brought to the Duma on September 28 and would be discussed and approved the next day.

Western countries are widely condemned “referendums” as completely false.