Russia holds State Duma vote in annexed Ukrainian regions: Moscow cites 3.5 million voters

Russia has included residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia—territories Moscow annexed in September 2022—in its State Duma vote; Russian officials say those areas contain over 3.5 million voters.

Nationwide voting ran from Friday to Sunday, while balloting in Russian-held parts of Ukraine and some border areas of Russia has been taking place since the end of last month for stated security reasons. Voting is also occurring in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.

Kyiv called the conduct of elections in those territories illegal and urged foreign governments and international organisations not to recognise the vote or its results. Ukrainian authorities warned that organising such voting could carry criminal liability for participants.

A coalition of nine Ukrainian human rights groups urged residents of the occupied territories to stay away from the polls, saying Russian authorities are using the electoral process to legitimise occupation. Violeta Artemchuk, coordinator of Donbas SOS, said local electoral commission members have been going door to door escorted by Russian troops and security agents to compel voting.

Artemchuk said Moscow-appointed officials pressure residents by threatening public-sector workers with dismissal for failing to vote and conditioning pensions and other social payments on participation. She said people who do not take part could be listed as “disloyal” and deprived of benefits or humanitarian assistance.

President Vladimir Putin, speaking Wednesday, stressed the importance of voting in those regions for the State Duma, saying residents there will vote “for the first time since their reunification with Russia.” He added that Russian soldiers involved in fighting will also vote.

Political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko of the Kyiv-based Penta Center described the wartime vote as a farce, saying elections held amid ongoing shelling and bombing reflect the Kremlin’s attitude toward the occupied population and the electoral process. The European Commission called the voting in Russian-held regions a “blatant violation of international law” and said the EU will never recognise those elections or their results.