Completely absurd, for Russian public: Zaporizhzhia regional council deputy on pseudo-elections in temporarily occupied territories 

He said this on the air of the Espreso TV channel.

"The pseudo-elections are being summed up 'actively', because our special services and the Armed Forces of Ukraine were actually targeting the Polohiv headquarters and Skelki in Vasyliv district almost every day during the 'elections'. They made for Russian occupiers, representatives of United Russia, very happy "elections", because in fact these strikes were targeted at these places where members of polling stations and members of their so-called headquarters were gathered," he said.

"This is a total farce, a total absurdity, which is being done for the internal Russian picture. So I think there is no point in talking about any turnout or the centre at all, they are also absurd because they show unrealistic numbers that have never even been in the regular elections that were held across the country. In their absurdity, they continue to break new records," he stressed.

What is known about the "elections" in the TOT

On 30 September 2022, Russian President Putin, based on the results of the so-called referendum in the TOT, signed "agreements" on the "accession" of the self-proclaimed LPR and DPR, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to Russia.

On 2 October 2022, he submitted a bill to the State Duma on the "accession to the Russian Federation" of four regions of Ukraine.

On 5 October last year, Putin signed the "laws" on the so-called accession of four regions of Ukraine to Russia. He also appointed Denis Pushilin as "acting head of the DPR" and Leonid Pasichnyk as "acting head of the LPR". Volodymyr Saldo became the "governor" of Kherson region, and Yevhen Balytskyi was appointed the "governor" of Zaporizhzhia.

The "elections" in the TOT were scheduled for 10 September 2023, but preparations for them began much earlier.

On 4 September, the National Resistance Centre stated that Russian enemy in the temporarily occupied territories could not find a sufficient number of "public observers" among the locals for the so-called elections, so they invited them from Russia.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said that among the candidates for representative pseudo-bodies in the temporarily occupied territories are Russian military personnel who took part in the invasion of Ukraine, where they killed and tortured people.

British intelligence has predicted the results of the "elections" in the TOT of Ukraine: the United Russia party is likely to win the most votes.  

On 7 September, Yuriy Sobolevsky, first deputy head of the Kherson regional council, said that the occupation authorities had already predicted a 15% turnout of the local population for the 'elections'.

On 8 September, Ukraine called on international partners to impose sanctions against the organisers of pseudo-elections in the temporarily occupied territories

On 8 September, the UN Security Council discussed Russia's attempts to organise local pseudo-elections in the occupied territories. Kyslytsia called for tough sanctions