Russia’s referendums have been condemned by the West as illegitimate and a precursor to illegal annexation
A billboard reads"No to the referendum! Stay Ukrainian!" on a main road in Kharkiv, days before referendums on joining Russia take place in several largely Russian-held regions in eastern and southern Ukraine from September 23 2022. Picture: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS
Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian governor of the Luhansk region, said that in the Russian-held town Bilovodsk, the head of one enterprise told employees the referendum was mandatory and those who refused to vote would be fired and their names given to the security service. The referendums had been discussed for months by pro-Moscow authorities but Ukraine's recent victories prompted a scramble by officials to schedule them.
Referendum results in favour of Russia are considered inevitable. The vote in Crimea in 2014, criticised internationally as rigged, had an official result of 97% in favour of formal annexation.
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