The authorities of the Ukrainian region of Kherson, under Russian control, denounced that the military present in the area forced the population to vote on several occasions in the referendum for accession to Moscow proposed by the pro-Russian authorities.
The region entered the second day of voting this Saturday in a consultation that Kherson’s vice president, Yuri Sobolevski, described on his Telegram account as a “theater of the absurd.”
“There are ‘electoral commissions’ accompanied by armed soldiers who go through the region and go to the homes of voters who try by all means to avoid them. Some have been unlucky twice: they had to fill out the ballot and vote a second time,” he denounced.
According to regional authorities, Russian troops prove that all household members have voted and, if not, force one of them to vote at the polls for each family member.
The self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the pro-Russian authorities of Kherson and Zaporizhia, began a referendum on joining Russia on Friday, which will end on Tuesday.
Moscow has already said that it will respect the result of the vote, something neither Ukraine nor much of the international community, including the United States, NATO or the European Union, does.
Pro-Russian authorities in Crimea held a referendum on joining Russia in 2014, the result of which legitimized Russian President Vladimir Putin to annex the peninsula to the territory of the Russian Federation.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Source: TSF
