Russia’s parliamentary election is including residents of four Moscow-controlled regions of Ukraine for the first time since Russia claimed to annex the territories following its full-scale invasion.
The vote represents part of Moscow’s continuing effort to integrate the occupied territories into Russia, while Ukraine has condemned the balloting there as illegal.
Voting across Russia began Friday and is scheduled to continue through Sunday. However, ballots have been cast since late last month in Russian-held parts of Ukraine and some Russian regions near the border, with authorities citing security concerns for the extended voting period.
Russian officials say more than 3.5 million eligible voters live in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Moscow often refers to as its “new regions.”
Russia announced the annexation of the four territories in September 2022 following referendums that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as illegitimate. Moscow does not fully control any of the four regions, and its claims of sovereignty over them have not been internationally recognized.
Ukrainian officials have strongly condemned Russia’s decision to conduct parliamentary voting in the occupied territories, saying the election violates Ukrainian sovereignty and international law.
Human rights activists have also raised concerns about the conditions under which residents are participating, with allegations that some people have faced pressure to vote.
At one polling station in the Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region, voters were seen placing ballots into a box while an armed Russian oldier stood nearby.
The election comes more than four and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and as fighting continues along several sections of the front line.
