Ukraine criticizes ‘sham’ elections in Russian-occupied areas

People who live in areas of Ukraine that are controlled by Russia are being requested to participate in what the government is calling local elections.

The foreign minister of Ukraine said the elections were fake and would not have any legal significance.

All the candidates are either from Russia or support Russia, and some of them were chosen by Moscow to be governors.

A lot of people who voted early were asked to vote while there were Russian soldiers with weapons around.

Ukrainian officials are telling people not to join in. They say that Ukrainian citizens who help with the elections will be punished later on.

The Council of Europe, which focuses on human rights, criticized the action in the areas of Ukraine that were taken over without permission. They said it goes against international law and Russia is not paying attention to this.

These areas are a very important part of Ukraine. The council said that holding elections there makes it seem like there is democracy, but it is not really true.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, criticized the elections in Ukraine held in areas controlled by Russia, calling them fake and not valid. In response, the Russian embassy in the US accused Washington of interfering in their internal matters, as reported by state media.

The elections will end on Sunday and are happening in four areas that Russia doesn’t have complete control over. These areas include Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.

Together, they contribute 15% of the total land owned by Ukraine.

These are the places that Russia said were theirs last September, after asking people if they wanted to be part of Russia or not.

The international community strongly criticized those referendums as being fake. There were reports that showed more than 99% of people supported the regions going under control of Moscow. In some cases, soldiers carrying weapons went from house to house to collect votes.

The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, who has been forced to leave the city, said that the recent local elections are not valid and have no value. He mentioned that many candidates in the Zaporizhzhia region are not from the area and some are even from Siberia.

He said to the AP news agency that the city had increased its security recently, and the residents felt scared because voting in a city that was controlled by others was similar to voting in a jail.

The Zaporizhzhia region is also the main target of Kyiv’s counter-attack, which started during the summer.

Ukrainian generals say they have broken through Russia’s strong front line defenses in that area, which means that the attack there is about to become stronger.

Experts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) say that recent progress in Ukraine is very important in terms of tactics. It is expanding the area where Ukraine is breaking through the defense lines of Russia and is also posing a threat to Russia’s backup defense lines.

Ukraine has been primarily focusing its efforts on the village of Robotyne, which is located about 56km (35 miles) to the south-east of the city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital.