image source,Reuters
In Mariupol, Ukraine, a woman walks past a heavily damaged residential building with a portable ballot bag.
In Ukraine, four Russian-controlled regions held so-called referendums on membership in what Ukraine and its Western allies called a hoax.
The votes were held in four Russian-controlled regions of southern and eastern Ukraine, which make up about 15 percent of Ukrainian territory, and were condemned by Ukraine and the West as illegal votes.
Election officials went door-to-door, accompanied by armed guards, and there were multiple allegations of intimidation.
There has been international speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin may announce the results of the vote during a speech at a joint session of Russia’s parliament on Friday.
In March 2014, he announced the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, days after a referendum was held there that was also unrecognized.
Which regions of Ukraine might join Russia?
The vote took place seven months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with only a few days’ notice, and took place from September 23 to 27.
The self-proclaimed referendum comes as Ukraine counterattacks to retake large swathes of territory it has occupied since Russia’s February 24 invasion.
image source,Getty Images
In Donetsk, soldiers have been escorting election workers from house to house.
Nearly 4 million people from the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (often referred to as the Donbas region) and the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye were asked to vote.
People from the region, including refugees now scattered across Russia, have been able to vote at the hundreds of polling stations there.
What’s the problem with people voting?
There is no electronic voting here, and the questions on the ballot vary by region.
image source,EPA
A woman votes at an outdoor polling station on the streets of Luhansk
That’s because pro-Russian separatists have controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014, when they held an independence referendum that was not internationally recognized.
Voters there were asked if they “supported their republic joining Russia as a federal subject”.
image source,Reuters
Polling stations have been set up in all regions.
People in Kherson and Zaporozhye, occupied by Russian troops after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, were asked if they were “in favor of the region’s separation from Ukraine, the creation of an independent state and subsequent accession to Russia as a federal subject”.
Ballots there are printed in Ukrainian and Russian, while ballots in the two eastern regions are printed in Russian only.
How is voting organized?
Voting took place at hundreds of polling stations in four regions, all heavily guarded by Russian or Russian-backed security forces.
image source,Reuters
Ballot boxes in Luhansk are guarded by armed soldiers.
Russian state news agency TASS reported that votes were also organized in the community on a door-to-door basis for security reasons.
Election officials, escorted by armed soldiers, knocked on doors where residents cast their ballots in front of gun-carrying soldiers.
“You have to answer verbally, and the soldiers will mark the answer on paper and save it,” a woman in Enerhodar, Ukraine, told the BBC.
So, are the guns there to protect those who vote, or to force them to vote? This is a question lingering in people’s minds.
A woman has described to the BBC how her parents voted in the city of Melitopol in the Zaporozhye region.
image source,Reuters
Many houses were destroyed in the war
She said two local “coordinators” and two Russian soldiers came to their apartment and gave them a ballot for their signature.
“My dad voted ‘no’ (to joining Russia),” the woman said. “My mom stood by and asked me what would happen if I wrote ‘no’. They said, ‘It’s okay’.”
Ukrainian journalist Maxim Eristavi tweeted that his family was “forced to vote at gunpoint” in southern Ukraine.
The lack of privacy is obvious.
Local state media and news photos showed ballots being filled out in front of everyone and placed in transparent ballot boxes without being folded.
image source,EPA
People fill out their ballots face-to-face at an outdoor polling station in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine.
The so-called referendum was held without independent observers.
In addition, rules of conduct and enforcement standards are lacking.
Voters have had little time to understand what the discredited referendum was all about.
What does Russia want from the vote?
Some experts see the self-styled referendums as a propaganda tool for Russia to garner public support at a time when its military is struggling to maintain its position in Ukraine.
image source,EPA
Ballot boxes have been delivered to patients at the Berdyansk hospital in the port city of Zaporozhye.
Serhiy Haidai, the exiled governor of the Luhansk region, told The Associated Press that the Russians are using the process as an excuse to find people they can mobilize as soldiers.
He also said they were checking for “anything suspicious and pro-Ukrainian.”
What happens after the referendum result?
Some saw the referendum as an attempt by Russia to restart the war.
If Russia annexes these areas, it could push the conflict to a new, more dangerous level, and Moscow will paint any Ukrainian efforts to reclaim them as an attack on its sovereign territory.
The annexation of these areas would give Russia the opportunity to claim in self-defense and retaliate vigorously for any Ukrainian counter-offensive in the area.
Putin has recently strongly suggested that he is capable of defending national territory with nuclear weapons.
How has the international community reacted?
The international community has protested strongly against these self-styled referendums.
Many Western countries denounced the vote as illegal. The international watchdog Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Russian media have said there is no doubt that the referendum will be in favor of joining Russia.
image source,Reuters
An election official checks a woman’s passport to verify her identity in Mariupol.
Serbia, which has close ties to Russia and was one of the few European countries not to join sanctions against Russia, announced it would not recognize the referendum result.
Serbia’s foreign minister, Serakovic, said doing so would be “completely contrary” to Serbia’s national policy of maintaining territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as its commitment to the principle of inviolability of borders.
In the face of international opposition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that the vote was an “expression of the will” of the people of the region.
He confirmed that if the four regions joined Russia, they would enjoy the same protections, including nuclear weapons, as any other part of Russian territory.
image source,EPA
The four areas where the polls took place suffered heavy military bombing, such as Mariupol.
The White House said the U.S. would never recognize Ukrainian territory as belonging to any other place.
U.S. President Joe Biden believes that “the referendum is a hoax, a false pretext for an attempt to blatantly violate international law and annex parts of Ukraine by force.”
Britain responded by imposing new sanctions on top Russian officials involved in the vote.