The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has informed the suspicion of organizing pseudo-elections for Putin in the temporarily occupied Donetsk region to the leaders of the "DPR".
This was reported by the SBU press service.
Itʼs about the Gauleiter of Donetsk Denys Pushylin, one of the heads of Putinʼs "election headquarters" Artem Zhoga and the head of the election commission of “DPR” Volodymyr Vysotskyi.
The investigation established that they organized mass falsifications regarding local participation in pseudo-elections and reported to the Kremlin about the alleged maximum support for illegal elections from the residents of the Donetsk region.
In order to create the appearance of "voting" in the destroyed Avdiivka, Denys Pushylin came to the city with the deputy head of the administration of the President of the Russian Federation Serhiy Kyriyenko. Among the mutilated buildings of the occupied city, they made a staged "video appeal" for the Russian media, pretending to be local residents who "wanted" to participate in the pseudo-elections.
Meanwhile, Artem Zhoga formed the leadership of the occupation "election committees" and controlled the "voting" results. He also gave instructions to Vysotskyi, who organized yard patrols accompanied by armed Russian invaders. People were forced to put "necessary" marks in illegal ballots.
All three defendants were informed of the suspicion under Part 5 of Art. 111-1 CСU (collaborative activity).
- The leader of the "DPR" Denys Pushylin already has 15 years in prison in absentia for encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, collaborationism and participation in the organization of an illegal referendum, and his accomplice Artem Zhoga — 12 years.
- Denys Pushylin comes from Makiivka, Donetsk region. He became the second leader of the “DPR” in November 2018 after the assassination of the first leader Oleksandr Zakharchenko.