EU promises to punish Russia for pseudo-elections in occupation

This was stated by the EU Permanent Representative to the UN Olof Skoog during a meeting of the UN Security Council.

"Russia, its political leadership and others involved in organizing these illegal so-called elections will face consequences for these illegal actions," Skoog said.

He emphasized that the pseudo-elections are taking place "against the backdrop of forced and illegal issuance of passports, including to children," as well as massive and systematic human rights violations in the occupation.

"Russia's illegal so-called elections in the territories of Ukraine under temporary military occupation are null and void under international law. They cannot and will not be recognized," he said.

More details about the "elections" in the temporarily occupied territories

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

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

Already on October 5 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 those territories were scheduled for September 10, 2023, but preparations for them began much earlier.

On September 4, the National Resistance Center stated that the 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 Verkhovna Rada 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 participated in the invasion of Ukraine, where they killed and tortured people.

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

On September 7, Yuriy Sobolevsky, first deputy chairman of the Kherson regional council, noted that the occupation authorities have already managed to involve 15% of the local population in these "elections"

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