Putin’s party wins controversial polls in annexed Ukraine regions: Reports
State media says Putin’s United Russia won more than 70 percent of the vote in the war-battered territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. Russia has wrapped up widely condemned regional and municipal elections, including in four eastern regions annexed from Ukraine , delivering strong support for President Vladimir Putin. The week-long polls, which wrapped up on Sunday, took place amid criticism of vote rigging and Ukraine’s push to reclaim its territories . The Council of Europe, Europe’s leading rights group, called the polls a flagrant violation of international law, while Kyiv and its allies said they were an illegal attempt to tighten Moscow’s grip over regions in Ukraine’s south and east. Data published by Moscow and proxy officials showed voters in Ukraine’s war-battered regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson had backed Putin’s United Russia party with more than 70 percent of the ballot in each territory, state-run news agencies reported. D...