Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow stages ‘sham’ elections in illegally occupied areas of Ukraine

More now on the illegal elections held by Russia in parts of occupied Ukraine.

In the Donetsk region port city of Mariupol, which was taken by Russia in May 2022 after a grinding, months-long siege, Reuters saw electoral officials set up a temporary polling booth on Thursday in the courtyard of a residential complex, Reuters reports:

A trickle of residents came out to cast their ballots, showing newly-distributed Russian passports to officials while police officers stood by.

Many people have fled Russian-occupied territory, which has suffered some of the worst damage of the conflict.

The exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, told Reuters people from the city, which he escaped on 26 February 2022, two days after Russia’s invasion, had told him there were no voter lists and no candidate lists.

“It is clear that there is no trust from the people toward this process, which should be called a sham election,” he said in an interview in Kyiv, adding that he expected a repeat of what he said had happened in annexation votes last year.

“They (Russian-installed officials) are going to walk from apartment to apartment, as they did before, talking to people. There are two soldiers standing nearby, carrying machine guns, and they tell the people that they must vote,” he said.
Reuters could not immediately verify his account.

Reuters: Russian-installed authorities began holding regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine Russia claimed as its own last year, seeking to cement Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the ongoing conflict.

Russia does not fully control any of the four regions where the votes are being held - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Along with Crimea - annexed by Moscow in 2014 - they make up almost a fifth of Ukraine.

Three quarters of countries at the United Nations General Assembly condemned what they termed Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of the four regions in a vote last October.

Ukrainian officials say the elections are also illegal and show why it is impossible to hold any peace talks with Moscow until Russia withdraws all its troops from Ukrainian territory.

In all four regions, Moscow’s handpicked governors, a mix of veteran pro-Russian politicians and others known only locally, are seeking full terms of office in the polls, which conclude on Sept. 10, when Russia holds regional polls.

The governors are all running with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s endorsement having joined the Kremlin’s United Russia bloc with fanfare in recent months and they face only nominal opposition.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.

Our top story this morning: Russian-installed authorities began holding regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine Russia illegally claimed as its own last year, seeking to cement Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the ongoing conflict.

Russia does not fully control any of the four regions where the votes are being held - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Along with Crimea - annexed by Moscow in 2014 - they make up almost a fifth of Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials say the elections are illegal and show why it is impossible to hold any peace talks with Moscow until Russia withdraws all its troops from Ukrainian territory.

• Reviving the Black Sea grain deal is “critical” for food security, Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan said. During a joint media appearance with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, he said: “We underlined its critical role for global food security and stability in the Black Sea.”

• Russian-installed authorities began holding regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine Russia claimed as its own last year, seeking to cement Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the ongoing conflict. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions where the votes are being held – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Along with Crimea – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – they make up almost a fifth of Ukraine.

• The Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko criticised what he called “stupid demands” from Poland and the Baltic states for Wagner fighters sheltering in his country to leave, AFP reported. Wagner fighters took refuge in Belarus after their short-lived rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership in June, prompting concerns from neighbouring countries.

• Ukrainian troops achieved some new “successes” in the south and east as they tried to advance their counteroffensive against Russian forces, the deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. Kyiv’s forces have been making slow progress against Russian minefields and trenches that have blocked a Ukrainian push in the south intended to reach the Sea of Azov and split Russian forces, the Associated Press reported.

• The alleged co-founder and military commander of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Dmitry Utkin, was buried near Moscow on Thursday.

• British defence company BAE Systems said on Thursday it had set up a local entity in Ukraine and signed deals with the government there to help ramp up Kyiv’s supply of weapons and equipment.

• Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has hit out at critics of Kyiv’s tactics in its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, saying they were spitting in the faces of Ukrainian soldiers and should “shut up”.

• Royal Navy warships and RAF patrol aircraft have tracked a series of Russian warships as they travelled close to the UK including through the Channel.

• Two Ukrainian “saboteurs” were killed and five captured during an incursion into the region of Bryansk, a Russian official reportedly said on Thursday. Separately, Russia reportedly said on Thursday it intended to develop ties with North Korea.

• A newly released video of Yevgeny Prigozhin purports to show the Wagner group boss in Africa addressing rumours about his wellbeing and threats to his life, just days before his death.

• The UK government has named ex-energy secretary Grant Shapps as the new defence secretary. A former chief of the general staff of the British army said Shapps knows “very little about defence” and it will take him “quite some time to get up to speed”.

• A military spokesperson said Ukrainian armed forces are making progress in the direction of Novoprokopivka – the village beyond Robotyne, in the direction of Melitopol.

• Russia’s air defences are struggling to detect and destroy Ukrainian drones launched on its territory, judging by how many have reached their targets, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decried corrupt medical exemptions that have enabled people to avoid military service, saying the system was subject to bribes and mass departures abroad.