- Ukraine's partisans have been sabotaging Russia's sham elections in occupied territories.
- Resistance efforts have included blowing up a polling station and mass distributing leaflets via drones calling on people to ignore the elections.
Ukraine has been sabotaging Russia's "sham elections" being held in occupied regions of Ukraine, The Kyiv Post reports.
Russia is holding elections this weekend in occupied Ukrainian territories, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea, The Guardian reports.
Kremlin polls are projecting that United Russia, the Russian ruling party, will win at least 70-80% of the vote, Reuters reports. A Russian analyst told The Kyiv Independent that if competing parties "even exist," we can "expect a pitiful outcome for them."
Interventions to sabotage the elections have included Ukraine's Security Service blowing up a polling station in Zaporizhzhia with drones.
"Elections here ended prematurely," a Security Service of Ukraine source told the Kyiv Post. "After the explosions, the occupiers got nervous."
The Armed Forces of Ukraine have launched major leaflet campaign drops.
A video posted by the National Resistance Center of Ukraine appears to show the defense forces dropping leaflets via drones with a call to ignore the "elections."
It read: "We will save you and protect you! Do not participate in the 'election' farce. Do not play along with the invaders! Today we are in Tokmak, tomorrow we will be in Berdiansk!"
The international community has condemned the elections. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, called the elections "illegitimate," while the Council of Europe called them "a flagrant violation of international law," per The Guardian.
Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says the elections violate the UN Charter and Ukrainian and international law.
Meanwhile, local populations are also largely ignoring the elections, according to the National Resistance Center.
Ukrainian resistance has ranged from mass leaflet distribution to passing on information about those complicit in the elections to the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, per The Kyiv Post.
"Some of the names of collaborators and traitors, as well as the invaders involved in the organization of these pseudo-elections, have been established, and some have already been liquidated. Further work is underway," said Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Directorate.
At least 3,000 Ukrainians in the Zaporizhzhia region are said to be implicated in helping Russians with the pseudo-elections, The Kyiv Post cites from authorities.