Russia asserted on Sunday that municipal elections in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine had been won by the United Russia party, which fervently supports President Vladimir Putin.
Despite not having complete military authority over the eastern and southern regions, the Kremlin asserted last year that it had annexated them. Ukraine and its allies have denounced the elections as a fraud.
State-run news outlets cited data from Moscow and proxy officials as indicating that United Russia received more than 70% of the vote in each of the war-torn regions where Ukraine is making gains.
Prior to the presidential elections projected to extend Putin’s authority until at least 2030, polls were also conducted around Russia.
His opponents are either in exile or prison, and Moscow has made criticizing the country’s involvement in Ukraine illegal and imprisoned hundreds of people for doing so.
In the areas of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, where Moscow claimed a voting station was attacked by a Ukrainian drone, authorities erected mobile polling booths days before the election.
The Kremlin-installed authorities in Donetsk, which has been under separatist control to some extent since 2014, said that Ukrainian bombardment had hurt election officials.
Additionally, voting was going on in Crimea, which Russia invaded in 2014.
Security officials in Ukraine claimed to have a list of “collaborators” involved in the voting’s planning and threatened retaliation.
