Russia holds parliamentary vote in areas it seized from Ukraine in the war — SkimNews
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- Russia's parliamentary election for the first time includes four annexed Ukrainian regions—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—where officials say over 3.5 million voters are eligible, though the 2022 annexation is not recognized internationally.
- Voting across Russia runs September 18–20, 2026, but in annexed territories and Russian border areas balloting began at the end of August, with officials citing security reasons for the extended period.
- At a Russian-held Donetsk polling station, voters dropped ballots in a box as an armed Russian soldier stood watch; Vladimir Putin on September 16 called the vote the first Duma election "since their reunification with Russia," saying soldiers fighting in the war would also vote.
- Ukraine's government and a coalition of nine Ukrainian human rights groups called the voting illegal, urging foreign governments not to recognize the results and warning that organizing the vote could carry criminal liability.
- European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand called the vote in occupied regions "another blatant violation of international law," with the EU refusing to recognize either the holding of the elections or their results.
- Activists including Violeta Artemchuk of the Donbas SOS human rights group described door-to-door election commission visits with armed escorts, public-sector workers threatened with dismissal for not voting, and pensioners or disabled residents warned they could be placed on a "disloyal" list and stripped of benefits.
- Kyiv-based analyst Volodymyr Fesenko called it "elections held at gunpoint" and "a farce," noting that voting amid "endless shelling and bombing" reflects the Kremlin's contempt for both occupied residents and democratic process.
Why it matters: By staging the first wartime Duma vote across 3.5 million residents in four regions it doesn't fully control, the Kremlin uses coerced participation—pensions tied to ballots, armed soldiers at polling stations, door-to-door enforcement—to manufacture a legitimacy paper trail the world refuses to recognize. Ukraine, the EU, and nine Ukrainian human rights groups have already formally rejected the results, deepening Russia's international isolation.
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