The referendum called by the Russian authorities in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia has already begun

The voting process will last until September 27. Russia has called on the population to vote “freely” and “fear nothing.” Even so, kyiv assures that “no legal act called a referendum” is taking place in the occupied territories.

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This Friday started referendum to determine possible accession to Russia in the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia occupied by Russian forces.

The vote started at 8:00 a.m. (7:00 a.m. in Euskal Herria) and will last until 4:00 p.m., something that will also happen in the following days and until September 27when the process will end.

The pro-Russian authorities in Kherson have indicated that they expect 750,000 people to turn out to vote, while in the census in Zaporizhia there are 500,000 people, according to the Russian news agency TASS. Likewise, Russia has also opened polling stations in several cities so that refugees can go to vote.

In both territories, participants must answer a question: “Are you in favor of the region leaving Ukraine, creating an independent state and becoming part of Russia?”

In the case of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, voters will have to decide whether they support “the entry of the republic into Russia as a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.”

Ukraine and the international community, against

kyiv has defended this Friday that it is not taking place “no legal act called a referendum” in the occupied territories, adding that the only thing that exists is a “propaganda show” at the service of recruiting soldiers for war.

The Ukrainian Parliament on Wednesday approved the declaration of inadmissibility of referendums of accession to Russia proposed by the pro-Russian authorities in these regions.

The pro-Russian authorities in Crimea already held a referendum on joining Russia in 2014, the result of which legitimized Putin to annex the peninsula, a move not recognized by the international community.

NATO, for its part, has reaffirmed that it will not recognize the results of the votes, because “they lack legitimacy” and constitute a “violation of the Charter of the United Nations”. In this sense, the alliance has called on “all states” to reject these attempts at “territorial conquest” by Russia, insisting that the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions “are Ukraine”.

A “partial mobilization”

Russian President Putin stated this Wednesday in a speech to the nation in which he announced a “partial mobilization” of the population for the war in Ukraine that Moscow would recognize the result of these referendums. “We will do everything possible to provide security conditions so that referendums are held and the population expresses its will,” she said.

The president added that he “will support the decision on his future, which will be taken by the majority of residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.”

This very Friday, the president of the Russian State Duma, Viacheslav Volodin, expressed himself along these lines, asking the population of these regions to “vote freely” and that “fear nothing”.