The referendum for the incorporation of Russian territories into Russian territory in Ukraine ended on the afternoon of the 27th local time.
This voting was held for five days from the 23rd in four regions: Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk (Russian name Lugansk) provinces in eastern Ukraine, Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), and southern Zaporiza Oblast and Kherson Oblast. I lost.
Russia has declared that any future attack on the region will be considered an attack on Russia if it officially declares these regions as its territory through a vote.
They are not afraid to use nuclear weapons to defend their territory if necessary.
However, Ukraine and the West have defined this vote as a 'fake vote' and are not accepting it.
The door to dialogue between Ukraine and Russia is also blocked, and a fiercer battle is expected to continue.
According to Reuters and TASS, voting in all regions except Donetsk, whose time was extended due to security issues, ended at 5 pm on the same day.
These regions cover an area of about 90,000 square kilometers, about 15% of the total territory of Ukraine and equivalent to all of Portugal.
The four regional election commissions announced that preliminary voting results will be released this evening and the final results will be confirmed within the next five days.
According to data collected by the Moscow Election Commission, about 15-20% of the votes were counted, and the approval rate for each region reached 96-98%.
Accordingly, it is expected that the territorial annexation will be passed with an overwhelming majority in all four occupied territories.
In Crimea, which was occupied by Russia in 2014, a referendum for territorial annexation was passed with a 97% approval rate.
However, throughout the election period, there have been constant testimonies that the National Election Commission is visiting residents and forcing them to vote in reality while the Russian military occupied the area.
Russia is expected to rush the follow-up process as soon as the territorial incorporation bill is approved as a result of the vote count.
"President Putin is scheduled to address the House and Senate in the Russian Parliament on the 30th," the Defense Ministry said.
To this end, it is speculated that the Russian House of Representatives (State Duma) may propose a merger bill that night and vote on it on the 28th, and then the Senate may approve it on the 29th.
The annexation of Crimea, a 'look-alike' case, took less than a week to complete from voting to final signing of the territorial annexation document.
The referendum was held in a blitz as fighting continued across the Ukrainian front.
The voting schedule has been decided abruptly as the war situation has changed recently, with Ukraine retaking most of the eastern Kharkiv and threatening Kherson and Luhansk provinces as well.
Russia seems to have decided that it could strengthen the cause of war and facilitate resource mobilization by formalizing these occupied territories as Russian territory through a referendum.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a mobilization order on the 21st, the day after the referendum was decided, and ordered measures to ensure legal military status for volunteers and militia in the occupied territories.
In this regard, there are testimonies that the mobilization ordinance targeting Russians has already begun to apply to residents of occupied territories in Ukraine.
Russia predicted that the nature of the war would change after the annexation of the territory through this vote.
If Russia has been carrying out a 'special military operation' to protect Russians in Ukraine, it will be a de facto war to defend against an invasion of its territory in the future.
In announcing the mobilization order, Putin said, "I will definitely use all means for the defense of the country and the people."
Ukraine plans to continue its offensive to retake its territory regardless of the referendum results.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "Russia will officially announce that the referendum is over and the results will come out", making negotiations impossible.
"Putin's decision will have no impact on politics, diplomacy and operations on the battlefield," Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleva said in a meeting with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on the same day.
The West also called this referendum a 'fake vote'.