Russia’s parliamentary election is including residents of Ukrainian territories that Moscow illegally claimed as its own after launching its full-scale invasion more than four and a half years ago—a move intended to reinforce the Kremlin’s territorial ambitions.
Kyiv has condemned the voting as unlawful, while a human rights advocate said residents in the occupied areas were being pressured and coerced into taking part.
Voting began across Russia on Friday and will continue through Sunday in an effort to increase participation. In the annexed Ukrainian territories and several Russian regions near the border, however, polling started late last month. Russian officials attributed the extended voting period to security concerns.
Russian authorities claim the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions—often labeled the “new regions” by Moscow—have more than 3.5 million eligible voters. Russia declared the territories annexed in September 2022 even though its forces did not fully control them. No country has recognized the move internationally.
At a polling station in the Russian-controlled section of Donetsk, voters placed ballots into a box as an armed Russian soldier stood nearby, watching the process.
Putin highlights the importance of voting in the occupied regions
In a speech Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said participation in the State Duma election was particularly significant in those territories. Residents, he said, would be voting for the lower house of parliament “for the first time since their reunification with Russia.”
Putin also said Russian troops engaged in the war would be able to cast ballots.
Voting is also underway in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
The State Duma election is the first held during wartime and is designed to preserve the Kremlin’s political control while projecting public backing for its invasion of Ukraine.
“Your choice and resolve will once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our fighters, that we are a united people, bound by shared values, historical memory, and love for the Motherland and that nobody can divide or intimidate us, undermine our statehood and political system,” Putin said.
Ukraine calls on the world to reject the election
Officials in Kyiv denounced the vote in the occupied territories as illegal and urged governments and international bodies not to recognize the election. Ukrainian authorities also warned that citizens who help organize the polling could face criminal charges.
A group of nine Ukrainian human rights organizations separately called on people living in Russian-held areas to avoid the polling stations.
“We urge residents of the temporarily occupied territories, above all, to protect their lives and health and to look after their own safety,” the coalition said. “Holding Russian elections in the temporarily occupied territories is an attempt to use the electoral process to legitimize the Russian occupation and the attempted annexation of Ukrainian territories.”
Christian Wigand, a spokesperson for the European Commission, called the voting in Russian-controlled Ukrainian regions “another blatant violation of international law.” He said the European Union “does not, and will never recognize either the holding of these, so-called elections, sham elections, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or their results.”
Activists report pressure to vote
Human rights groups describe coercion at the polls
Violeta Artemchuk, coordinator of the Donbas SOS rights organization and a signatory to the statement, said local election commission workers were going door to door with Russian soldiers and security personnel to compel residents to cast ballots.
Artemchuk said Moscow-installed authorities were also applying pressure by threatening public-sector employees with dismissal if they did not vote and linking pensions and other social benefits to participation.
“For instance, if a person with a disability or a pensioner relies on social assistance and does not take part in the ‘voting,’ they could be added to a list of individuals deemed ‘disloyal’ to the so-called authorities and subsequently deprived of their benefits or humanitarian assistance,” she said.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst with the Kyiv-based Penta Center, emphasized that “elections held at gunpoint are a farce.”
“The very fact that voting takes place amid endless shelling and bombing reflects the Kremlin’s attitude toward the people and the electoral process in the occupied territories,” Fesenko told The Associated Press.
“It’s nothing short of a mockery. Any electoral procedures conducted by the Russian occupation authorities have nothing to do with democracy,” he said.
