National Resistance Center: Partisans blow up soldiers who protected sham elections in occupied areas

Ukrainian partisans killed one Russian soldier and injured two by blowing up a car in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, on Sept. 9, the National Resistance Center reported.

The car was reportedly used to protect polling stations set up for sham "elections" in occupied Ukrainian territories as Russia seeks to consolidate its control over these regions.

Partisans also hacked Russian broadcasts in occupied Crimea, showing a pro-Ukrainian video clip calling for a boycott of the sham "elections" on TV.

The illegal elections in the occupied territories come nearly a year after Russia held sham annexation referendums in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk, and Donetsk oblasts, which Moscow only partially controls, and nine years after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

The sham voting began on Aug. 31 and is scheduled to end on Sept. 10.

Ukrainians under occupation face deportation, loss of property after Putin’s new order

Editor’s Note: The names of the people from the Russian-occupied territories interviewed by the Kyiv Independent for this story have been changed to protect their identity, as they have shared sensitive information that could place them in danger. As Russia largely exhausted its military potential…

The Kyiv IndependentAlexander Khrebet

The sham elections have been widely condemned in Ukraine and abroad, with officials saying the results will be rigged in Russia’s favor.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that “Russia’s sham elections in the temporarily occupied territories are null and void."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called the voting a “blatant disregard for UN Charter principles” and said that Washington will “never recognize the Russian Federation’s claims to any of Ukraine’s sovereign territory.”

“The Kremlin hopes these pre-determined, fabricated results will strengthen Russia’s illegitimate claims to the parts of Ukraine it occupies, but this is nothing more than a propaganda exercise,” Blinken said.

The pro-Kremlin United Russia party's headquarters located in the occupied city of Polohy, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, were destroyed on Sept. 8, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov reported via Telegram.

Russia holds sham ‘elections’ in occupied Ukrainian territory

Voting is underway in sham “regional elections” in occupied Ukrainian territories as Russia seeks to consolidate its control over these regions. The illegal so-called elections in the occupied territories come nearly a year after Russia held sham annexation referendums in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luh…

The Kyiv IndependentAlexander Khrebet