Riga Russia is apparently pushing through the sham referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine by putting pressure on the population. In the four regions of Cherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia, the remaining residents are expected to vote on joining Russia by next Tuesday.
The governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Hajdaj, reported in online posts on Friday that election officials had crossed out the names of those who voted against the Anschluss. There were also threats of smashing doors if the vote was refused.
Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol in the Zaporizhia region, told the AP news agency that citizens in his city were being pressured to vote. “Groups of collaborators and Russians” “go from door to door together with armed soldiers, but few people open the door to them.”
According to reports from the Russian news agency RIA, a hotel in Cherson was bombed by Ukrainian troops at the weekend. The city has been occupied by Russian troops for months. Two people were killed in the process.
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According to the Ukrainian military on Sunday, Russian forces have carried out dozens of rocket and air strikes on civilian and military targets in a 24-hour period. The information provided by both sides cannot be independently verified.
>> Read here: “Basic requirement” for nuclear weapons – military experts analyze Putin’s new moves
According to the Constitution of Ukraine, only the Ukrainian government has the authority to organize referendums that would result in changes to the state’s territory. In addition, the procedure is contrary to international law because free and secret elections are not possible in areas in which a war of aggression contrary to international law is taking place. There is no independent international observer mission.
The Kremlin wants to use the sham referendums to make the already occupied territories part of Russia. It is expected that the areas will be annexed and possibly declared Russian state territory by President Vladimir Putin next Friday.
According to a report by the Russian state news agency Tass, the parliament, the Duma, could deal with listing the areas as early as Thursday. UN Secretary-General António Guterres had described the annexation of the areas as a violation of international law.
Russian politicians criticize the approach to partial mobilization
Since it can be expected that the Ukrainian side will not recognize the results and will continue to try to recapture the areas, the Russian side needs to strengthen the army in order to hold the occupied areas. With the partial mobilization ordered by Putin last Wednesday, the Russian leadership wants to increase the number of soldiers. However, military experts assume that the measure will only have an impact on the course of the war in a few months.
Since the partial mobilization was announced, the Finnish border guards have registered more arrivals from Russia.
(Photo: IMAGO/Lehtikuva)
Reports and videos accumulated on social networks over the weekend, according to which men are currently being called up in Russia who, according to the publicly announced rules of partial mobilization, should not be drafted, for example because of their age. Shortly thereafter, Russian politicians also commented on the allegations.
On Saturday, for example, Valentina Matviyenko, who has chaired the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament since 2011, showed understanding for the complaints about the mobilization campaign in her Telegram channel. She referred directly to reports that men who should not have been affected by the partial mobilization were also called up.
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“Such excesses are absolutely unacceptable. And I think it’s absolutely right that they should trigger a sharp reaction in society,” she writes. The governors of Russia are responsible for implementation. They would have to ensure that the partial mobilization criteria were fully and correctly observed. Matviyenko is also a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin also spoke on the matter via telegram on Sunday. He wrote: “It is important that the partial mobilization takes place in accordance with the law.” “If mistakes were made, they should be corrected,” said Volodin.
According to civil rights activists, police officers fired warning shots at demonstrators during a protest against the mobilization in the Russian republic of Dagestan in the Caucasus. In the village of Endirej, residents blocked a road to obstruct the partial mobilization ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the independent organization OVD-Info said on Sunday.
Videos show police officers pointing guns in the air, then shots are heard. According to Dagestani media, the protest was a reaction to 110 men from the village being forced into the war against Ukraine. Muslim Dagestan is one of the regions of Russia from which, according to observers, a particularly large number of men are conscripted. Activists complain that members of ethnic minorities are particularly hard hit by the mobilization.
UN complains about war crimes
The scale of war crimes in Ukraine is becoming increasingly clear. A United Nations (UN) commission of inquiry presented interim results of its investigation into Russia’s war of aggression on Friday. The chairman of the commission, the Norwegian judge Erik Mose, stressed before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva: “We are concerned about the suffering that the international armed conflict in Ukraine has brought to the civilian population.”
The commission investigated on site in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy. Based on the evidence gathered, the commission “concluded that war crimes were being committed in Ukraine,” the chairman said.
>> Read here: Gunshot wounds in the head: UN commission confirms war crimes in Ukraine
Witnesses unanimously told the commission about ill-treatment and torture during detention. Some of the victims testified that they were trafficked to Russia after being arrested in Ukraine. They were detained there for weeks and subjected to torture and ill-treatment. The investigators also documented rapes by “some soldiers of the Russian Federation”.
More: After Putin’s partial mobilization, more and more young Russians are fleeing to neighboring countries