MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia claimed Sunday that the United Russia party, which staunchly backs President Vladimir Putin, had won local ballots in four Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia.
A Russian rescuer speaks on his mobile phone next to a wall bearing an image of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Moscow's Kremlin at a polling station during local elections organised by the Russian-installed authorities in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on September 8, 2023.
Data published by Moscow and proxy officials showed voters in the war-battered territories, where Ukraine is clawing back ground, had backed United Russia with more than 70 percent of the ballot in each territory, state-run news agencies reported. Authorities set up mobile polling booths days ahead of the vote in the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, where Moscow said a polling station was attacked by a Ukrainian drone.
Sobyanin beat out the grandson of a veteran Communist politician and a little-known candidate from a new party dubbed"New People"."Moscow is blossoming in front of our eyes," 21-year-old student Rukhin Aliyev told AFP. Electoral commission chief Ella Pamfilova said voting had been postponed in Shebekino, a district of the Belgorod region that has been hit by shelling,"due to a regime of high alert".