KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Voting began Friday on whether occupied regions of Ukraine should become part of Russia, in referendums that Kyiv and the West condemned as an illegitimate and rigged attempt by Moscow to annex areas in the east and south after nearly seven months of war.
Amid the balloting, United Nations experts and Ukrainian officials pointed to new evidence of war crimes in Ukraine. Kharkiv region officials said a mass burial site in the eastern city of Izium contained hundreds of bodies, including at least 30 displaying signs of torture.
The Kremlin-orchestrated referendums in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions asked residents if they want the areas to be part of Russia. The voting overseen by Moscow-installed authorities, scheduled to run through Tuesday, is almost certain to go the Kremlin’s way.
Russian-installed authorities in the Kherson region said residents of a small Moscow-controlled area of the neighboring Mykolaiv region also will be able to vote, and that small area was “incorporated” into the Kherson region until all of Mykolaiv is taken over by Russian forces
Ukraine and the West have denounced the vote as a sham and an illegitimate step toward annexation of a large slice of the country from the Russian border to the Crimean Peninsula. A similar referendum took place in Crimea in 2014 before Moscow annexed it, a move that most of the world considered illegal.