Denis Pushilin, Russian-appointed "head" of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" (DPR), has issued a sham "decree" introducing a range of bans in the Russian-occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, including military censorship and a ban on gathering.
Following the sham elections on the left bank of Kherson Oblast, the Russian occupiers have begun to form so-called territorial defence units recruited from the local population so that these locals can be drafted into the mobilisation reserve in the future.
The foreign ministers of the seven of the world’s leading economies have condemned Russian efforts to stage illegal elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
"Held in flagrant violation of international law, (the sham "elections") constitute a further illustration of the denial by the Russian Federation of the values of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law upheld by the Council of Europe," the council said in a statement.
The European Union has condemned the holding of sham "elections" by the Kremlin in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea and the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson oblasts.