Valeria has clearly seen, in Mariupol, the vehicles which for the past few days have been transporting the ballot boxes supposed to bring a hint of legitimacy to the imminent annexation of this Ukrainian region by Moscow. Ballot boxes carried by local officials most often escorted by armed and hooded men.
“They come directly to the doors of houses and buildings. It was done before to allow disabled people to vote, now it’s like that for everyone, “ explains this mother on the phone from a village near Mariupol, occupied by the Russian army in April after a terrible siege and weeks of bombing. No way for her to participate: “I have never voted in my life, not even in 2019 between Poroshenko and Zelensky, I will definitely not go this time! »
Vote “yes” out of fear
From Kherson, isolated from the rest of the territories occupied by the immense Dnieper River, to Mariupol, via Luhansk, controlled since 2014 by separatist forces under the supervision of Moscow, Russia began on September 23 a mock referendum in front of endorse the annexation of these regions. The decision was announced at the last moment, after an unexpected counter-offensive allowed the Ukrainian army to retake almost all of the Kharkiv region in the northeast of the country. It was also combined with Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a mobilization intended to bring in 300,000 Russian soldiers – up to a million according to the Russian independent media. Novaya Gazeta – on the Ukrainian theater.
The sham referendums are taking place in regions forced for months to come to terms with a Russian occupation characterized by arbitrary arrests, but also by regular attacks against Russian forces or local authorities who collaborate. ” People are scared “, summarizes Anna Romanenko, a Ukrainian journalist who left her hometown of Mariupol before the start of the war but who maintained contacts in the territories under Russian control. “Some of those I speak with have left Mariupol and settled with their relatives in surrounding villages, to lay their backs for the referendum. People are afraid to vote against, because everything is done face-to-face, there is no secret ballot. A man wrote to me that he voted “yes” even though he does not support Russia. He is simply afraid. »
Get stuck on the wrong side of the front line
Valeria, who settled in Mariupol a few years ago after fleeing her native region of Donetsk, thinks that “the majority of those who are still there see the new power and the referendum in a positive light… Many have even returned, although their homes have been destroyed! I ask them why, and they simply answer ‘this is our homeland’”.
Valeria would like to leave, and is not the only one. On Telegram messaging, where discussion groups allow locals to discuss daily life in the occupied territories, the question of departures is more pressing. More uncertain too, while many locals fear being stranded on the wrong side of the front line, or even being forcibly conscripted into the Russian army. “I went through Vassylivka, all the under 35s were turned away, and they didn’t want to discuss, no matter how much money was offered. A member of my family wanted to come back, he’s 35 years old and he didn’t come. Well, I’m 37 and I went…” A conversation among others between inhabitants of Melitopol, a town in the south among the first to be captured by the Russian army, and about the only corridor making it possible to cross the front line, between Vassylivka, a village under Russian control, and Zaporijjia, capital regional remained Ukrainian.
The rumor evokes a stop of the passages until September 27, when Moscow will announce the end of its referendums and the annexation of these regions. Date on which will open for the inhabitants of these regions a new chapter full of apprehension.
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Washington threatens Moscow with retaliation
The G7 countries (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom) are calling “all countries to unequivocally reject these fictitious referendums”of the “simulacra” who “have neither legal effect nor legitimacy”.
US President Joe Biden threatens retaliatory measures“fast and tough” in the event of annexation, considering that “Russia’s referendums are (…) a spurious pretext to try to annex parts of Ukraine by force”.
Without going so far as to denounce the elections, China, closest partner to Moscow, called for respect for “territorial integrity of all countries”.
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