Referendum in Ukraine: Officials go door to door and search houses. People are forbidden to leave – HNonline.sk

In parts of Ukraine controlled or occupied by Moscow, hastily organized voting has begun, which pro-Russian authorities describe as a referendum on the annexation of the areas to Russia. Kiev and the West consider him a fraud. For example, according to the adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Mykhailo Podoljak, it is not a legal referendum, but only a propaganda show intended for mobilization. According to pictures in the Russian media, officials of the pro-Russian administration go door to door with portable ballot boxes to force people to vote, AFP reports. “Don’t open the door” “Today it would be best for the people of Kherson not to open the door,” Yuriy Sobolevskyi, the Ukrainian vice-chairman of the Kherson Regional Council, said on the Telegram platform. People are being forced to fill out “pieces of paper” without privacy in the kitchens and yards of residential houses, while cities are closed to prevent them from leaving and avoiding voting, according to the head of Ukraine’s Luhansk regional administration, Serhiy Hajday, Reuters reported. In the city of Starobilsk, pro-Russian authorities banned residents from leaving the city until Tuesday and sent armed groups to search houses and force people to participate in the referendum, Hajdaj reported. Voting is taking place in the self-proclaimed pro-Russian Luhansk People’s Republic, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, into which the Russian occupying forces have “incorporated” parts of other regions that they still hold. Residents of the mentioned parts of Ukraine who are now in Russia can also come to cast their vote, but according to Russian internet sources, there is confusion about where they can come to cast their vote. The referendum will last five days The plebiscite is supposed to last five days. For the first four days, members of the election commissions will visit the homes of local residents, the independent server Meduza and the Russian-language website of the BBC reported. According to them, the polling stations will also be open on the last day. The occupation authorities explain this decision by fearing for the safety of residents, many of whom will have to vote in settlements located near the front line. In Donbas, according to the media, the ballots have only one question – whether people agree to be incorporated into the Russian Federation, which can be answered yes or no. In the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, answers to three questions are requested – whether the voter is in favor of secession from Ukraine, the creation of an independent state, and joining the Russian Federation. The Russian agency TASS reported today that less than a thousand observers are participating in the referendum in Donetsk, and there are no independent international observers among them. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which routinely monitors the election, said the results would not be legally valid because they were in violation of Ukrainian laws and international law, were being held in areas where the environment was not secure, and independent observers do not participate in them. It’s a fraud, says Kyiv. Kyiv and its Western allies have already called the referendum a fraud. Their representatives said that they do not recognize the results, they consider them only a step by Moscow towards the illegal annexation of another Ukrainian territory. Russia says the referendums are an opportunity for the region’s residents to express their opinion. The official results are widely expected to support the accession to Russia. According to CNN, Hajdaj said today that Russia will calculate a result that will be favorable for it. “The opinion of the population has no meaning,” he said. In the meantime, the Ukrainian agency Unian wrote that pro-Russian authorities brought a crowd from the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed already in 2014, to the occupied Melitopol in the Zaporozhye region to film propaganda clips about the population’s alleged support for the referendum on joining Russia. She referred to the exiled mayor of the city, Ivan Fedorov, according to whom the occupiers filmed a report a few days ago in which people in the streets expressed support for Russia – but they spoke with an accent and were said not to be from Melitopol. In addition, according to Fedorov, there are the first reports that the residents of Melitopol do not open their apartments to officials visiting the apartments and do not respond to their calls. “We can confirm that this referendum is a fraud,” said Fedorov. They will adapt the results The Kremlin has carried out a number of actions in the Ukrainian territories under its control, which arouse deep skepticism regarding the possible legitimacy of the vote, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty wrote on its website. Moscow has been issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens in Donetsk and Luhansk for years. According to Western estimates, the Kremlin has deported about 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens to Russia since the beginning of the invasion and at the same time transported Russian citizens to Ukrainian territory by bus, the station writes. Moscow has also captured the personal and biometric data of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in so-called “filter camps” it set up after the invasion, which experts say opens the door for ballot manipulation. Russia has little history of free and fair elections, on the contrary, ballots are often falsified and voters are intimidated, the station noted. 01 – Modified: 2022-09-23 06:03:49 – Feat.: 1 – Title: Referendums on joining Russia started in Moscow-occupied parts of Ukraine 02 – Modified: 2022-09-22 22:00:44 – Feat .: 1 – Title: Valášek for HN: Mobilization changes the situation. It wakes up people who want nothing to do with the war 03 – Modified: 2022-09-22 14:22:44 – Feat.: 1 – Title: Occupied territories in Ukraine are already preparing for referendums. The situation resembles Crimea in 2014 04 – Modified: 2022-09-22 11:30:00 – Feat.: 1 – Title: ANALYSIS: Russia wants to cement itself in Ukraine where it is. He has nothing more to say 05 – Modified: 2022-09-21 12:03:15 – Feat.: 1 – Title: The Constitutional Court accepted Čaputová’s proposal. It will assess the constitutionality of the first referendum question 06 – Modified: 2022-09-21 09:48:07 – Feat.: 1 – Title: A hard blow for Russian stocks and the ruble. Markets react to the announcement of mobilization 07 – Modified: 2022-09-21 09:23:28 – Feat.: 1 – Title: Putin escalates the situation. Creates conditions for blackmailing the West with a nuclear attack, criticizes Naď 08 – Modified: 2022-09-20 18:36:39 – Feat.: 1 – Title: The opposition at the protest called for the resignation of the government. Fico singled out Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán 01 – Modified: 2022-09-23 11:49:33 – Feat.: – Title: The US has been warning Russia against the use of nuclear weapons for months. They also use private channels for this 02 – Modified: 2022-09-23 11:58:52 – Feat.: – Title: The mobilization of 300,000 soldiers was a lie, Putin’s decree has a secret article 03 – Modified: 2022-09-23 10 :12:55 – Feat.: – Title: War crimes were committed in Ukraine, UN investigators confirmed. They also affected children 04 – Modified: 2022-09-23 09:40:13 – Feat.: – Title: Berlusconi defends Putin: Ministers and people forced him to invade, he wanted to replace the government in Kyiv with decent people 05 – Modified: 2022- 09-23 09:17:12 – Feat.: – Title: Russians run away from mobilization also on bicycles. They wait for hours at the border with Georgia