INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Authorities in separatist and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine on Thursday announced the start of early voting in local elections.Voting
was due to take place on Sept
10, as part of elections scheduled in dozens of regions across Russia, where voters will elect new governors, local parliaments and
municipal councils.However, Kremlin-backed authorities in the occupied Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions organized early elections starting
Thursday, while voting in the Kherson and Luhansk regions will open on Saturday.No real opposition is standing in the elections as the
authorities wage a brutal crackdown on any dissenting voices.Over the next week, residents of frontline areas unable to cast their ballots
Moscow controls around one-fifth of neighboring Ukraine's territory, including the Crimea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, and parts of
the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.Around 2 million voters from the Donetsk region are expected to cast ballots for 90
members of the regional legislature, as well as for more than 500 members of local councils, from five Kremlin-approved political
Commission to call elections in occupied areas under martial law during ongoing heavy fighting.The votes, which are not expected to be
eastern Ukraine as Kyiv presses on with its counteroffensive, launched in June along a vast front of almost 1,000 kilometers.After weeks of
grinding combat, Ukraine is hoping for a major breakthrough in the Zaporizhzhia region after recapturing the village of Robotyne this
week.AFP contributed to this reporting.
