Russian soldiers have been pictured watching over Ukrainian voters in the occupied territories as they vote in sham presidential elections for the first time.
Wearing face coverings and wielding automatic weapons, soldiers have been filmed accompanying poll workers door-to-door through the four regions of Ukraine illegally annexed by Vladimir Putin in September 2022.
Occupation officials say the military escorts are there to protect those collecting votes, Ukraine says they are there to intimidate civilians into voting for a man that ordered the invasion of their regional homes.
Footage published on state media site Readovka showed soldiers “helping people express their will” in the recently-occupied city of Avdiivka. The area has been razed to the ground after five months of heavy bombardment.
Election officials have designated the occupied territories as “remote”, allowing Russia to extend the voting period for three weeks, making the process harder to monitor.
Elena Kravchenko, the chairman of Russia’s election commission in Luhansk, meanwhile, has claimed that “Ukrainian Neo-Nazis” unsuccessfully tried to block voting in Luhansk, but is yet to provide evidence.
Putin is all set to secure six more years in power – but how will it affect key issues in Russia?
Vladimir Putin is poised to sweep to another six-year term in this week’s presidential election, even though Russians are dying in Ukraine in a war that is grinding through its third year and his country is more isolated than ever
Tom Watling16 March 2024 21:23
UK minister forced to abandon trip to Ukraine due to missile threat
Grant Shapps was forced to abandon a trip to Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa because of a Russian missile threat.
The Defence Secretary had to abort the visit after he was warned by British intelligence that the Russians had become aware of his travel plans, according to a Sunday Times report confirmed by a source close to Mr Shapps.
Tom Watling16 March 2024 20:27
How Ukrainians living under Russian occupation are being coerced to vote for Putin
Ukrainians living in regions illegally annexed by Russia are being coerced to vote in the presidential election of their wartime occupier, Vladimir Putin, an exercise denounced by Ukraine as an illegitimate effort by Moscow to tighten control over its neighbor
Tom Watling16 March 2024 20:00
Noon Against Putin: Alexei Navalny’s final plan to disrupt Russia’s sham elections
Russian citizens will spend this weekend casting their vote for their next president, even though the result has already been decided.
No amount of votes against him can prevent his victory, say the Russian dissident community, since the system is rigged and those that could challenge him have either been killed, imprisoned or exiled.
Tom Watling16 March 2024 19:20
Welsh miners send convoys of aid to Ukraine to repay help over 1984 strike
Askold Krushelnycky reports from Pavlohrad, southeastern Ukraine, where the latest in a number of convoys of vehicles and supplies is handed over to help Kyiv’s forces defend against Russia’s invasion
Tom Watling16 March 2024 18:45
This re-election of Putin is a shameless charade and nothing to do with voters’ empowerment
Editorial: With little doubt over the ‘winner’ of this weekend’s Russian presidential election, the West should take heart that Putin finds himself isolated – and as his country recedes into Stalinism, so too does its economic prospects. His impoverishing of the Russian people…
This article was originally published by a www.independent.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .