There was a fifth to be held in Kharkiv but the recent very successful counter-offensive on the part of Ukrainian forces meant that Russian plans for a fake referendum there were abandoned.

Apparently official results will be announced on September 30 but figures are already being released within the Russian media. According to Kremlin-controlled sources, Ukrainians have voted overwhelmingly to become a part of Russia, in extremely and unbelievably high figures numbering up to 97 per cent.

This vote has not been free or fair. Firstly, we need to consider who voted.

Were the voters citizens of the Russian Federation who have been brought to live in the occupied areas within the last six months? Were these voters Russian citizens? Were they Ukrainian citizens forcibly detained and recently deported to Russia, subject to scrutiny by Russian authorities? People all across the Russian Federation, including in Moscow, were seen to be casting a vote.

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Secondly, we need to ask under what conditions people voted. Ukrainian citizens who have remained in areas under Russian occupation have been living under a regime of terror with the daily threat of arrest and torture, abduction and deportation.

These are people who may have been too afraid to stay away from the polling booths. Footage is emerging of voters accompanied by Russian soldiers with guns. Footage is also emerging of Russian soldiers perusing voting slips as they are being handed in.

There is no legal status upon which referenda could have been held and any outcomes announced will not be accepted by Ukraine or the international community.

The United States, Britain and European nations have already announced that such results will not be recognised and so-called 'independence' from Ukraine or annexation on the part of the Russian Federation will be not acknowledged as legitimate.

If it has already been determined that other countries will not accept the outcome of such referenda in occupied territories, what then is the point?

Simply, this is an act of propaganda which is designed for a domestic Russian audience.

Firstly, the results will allow Russian authorities to continue the narrative that the Russian military is liberating a Ukrainian population which wants to belong to Russia.

Secondly, these areas will be announced as being part of the Russian Federation after which the Putin regime will likely begin a new narrative that Russian forces are needed to protect so-called Russian territory, thereby justifying the recent (and perhaps future) mobilisation.

The construction of phoney referenda does not change anything for Ukraine, and Ukrainian authorities have been aware of this strategy for some time now. After all, this war began eight years ago with exactly the same tactic: military occupation followed by a fake referendum in Crimea in 2014. In Crimea, a ballot paper asked residents to choose between joining Russia or leaving Ukraine - they were not even given a choice to vote for remaining a part of Ukraine.

At lightning speed, Crimea was proclaimed an independent territory and a day later, a part of the Russian Federation.

An announcement that Ukrainians in occupied territory have now voted in vast numbers to become a part of Russia will be seen as the fraud that it is but will this change anything?

We will likely see more of the same: the installation of puppet leaders in local government structures, the Russification of civil institutions such as the schooling system, information black-outs and continuing disinformation, and dictatorial control over the local population by way of arrest and incarceration in filtration camps. However, Russian forces and the Putin regime will also see more of what it has seen so far: Ukrainian resistance and resilience, and support for Ukraine from around the world.