Russia’s referendums in occupied Ukraine

Voting in four occupied regions has been condemned by Kyiv and the West as a sham, with Russian-backed officials reportedly going door-to-door with ballot boxes, accompanied by armed police


Regions where Russia is staging referendums
Russian control (Sep 25)

BELARUS
Chernihiv
Kyiv
River Dnieper
Cherkasy
UKRAINE
MOLDOVA
Kherson
Mykolaiv 
Odesa
KHERSON
CRIMEA Annexed in 2014
ROMANIA
BLACK SEA
Sumy 
RUSSIA
Kharkiv
Poltava
LUHANSK
Kramatorsk
Dnipro
Zaporizhya
DONETSK
ZAPORIZHYA
Mariupol
Sea of Azov
Rostov-on-Don

100km 60 miles


Russian forces control territory in four regions that represents about 15 percent of Ukraine

Referendums in occupied regions widely seen as creating pretext for annexation by Moscow

Russian authorities expected to announce regions as theirs once vote ends on Sep 27

Russian parliament could move to formalise annexations within days

By incorporating regions into Russia, Moscow could portray efforts to retake them as attacks on Russia itself

Kremlin held referendum in Russian-occupied Crimea in 2014 to justify annexation of Black Sea peninsula – move considered illegal by most of world


Sources: Associated Press, ISW, Reuters
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