Russians will use pseudo-elections in Ukraine to register mobilization resources - General Staff

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in a post on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

The General Staff recalled that on September 10, 2023, the occupation authorities plan to hold illegal "elections of heads and deputies of local councils" in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

"The vast majority of candidates do not even have higher education and work as janitors, security guards and cleaners. The occupiers simply use their identities to hide the real 'leaders' of the occupied territories," the military said.

The General Staff said that the civilized world would not recognize the pseudo-elections and their results and that the very fact of their holding and the participation of the local population would be used by the occupation authorities to register mobilization resources and ensure their subsequent conscription into the ranks of the invading army.

"The command of the Defense Forces of Ukraine calls [on residents of temporarily occupied areas] to ignore participation in such pseudo-democratic measures and to avoid conscription into the occupation army," the post said.

Russia announced that on September 8-10, 2023, the so-called elections to local occupation administrations will be held in the temporarily occupied parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions of Ukraine, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that these illegal elections would not have any legal consequences and would not lead to any change in the status of the Ukrainian territories captured by the Russian army.