Child abductors and collaborators. “Important Stories” told who stood in the elections in Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions

“Important Stories” and the Conflict Intelligence Team studied the electoral lists in the occupied territories of Ukraine - in the LPR and DPR, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

More than 70% of all candidates in Zaporozhye and Kherson regions are local residents. In the lists from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation there are 89% of them, and, for example, from United Russia there are only 55%. “Important Stories” notes that some candidates indicated Kherson as their place of residence, although Ukrainian troops liberated the city in November 2022.

A third of all candidates in these regions are housewives, pensioners, students or unemployed. Most of them are running for the LDPR, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia. There are only 3% of them on the lists of the party in power. The candidates running for United Russia are mainly heads of local authorities and government organizations, as well as other officials, public sector employees and a small percentage of entrepreneurs.

For example, the first on the party list for the Zaporozhye Regional Duma is the “leader” of the Zaporozhye region, Evgeniy Balitsky, the second is the “head” of the Melitopol administration, Galina Danilchenko. Among the candidates is the self-proclaimed mayor of Berdyansk, Alexander Saulenko, who was sentenced in Ukraine to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property for collaboration.

The deputy chairman of the occupation government of the Kherson region, who was also nominated in the current elections, Vitaly Bulyuk, took a pro-Ukrainian position back in April 2022. “Kherson is Ukraine,” he wrote then on social networks, but a month later he changed his mind. He is called one of the most influential people in the Kherson region. Two Ukrainians, whom a Russian court found guilty of the assassination attempt on Bulyuk, were sentenced to long terms - 23 and 24 years in prison, writes “Important Stories”.

In addition to Ukrainians, there are 340 Russians on the lists of candidates for elections to the legislative assemblies of the occupied regions. The majority are residents of the border Rostov region, but there are also 30 Muscovites.

“United Russia, the party in power, which, without a doubt, will become the leader following the election results, compared to other parties, is least inclined to include local residents of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions in the parliaments of these two regions,” note “Important Stories.” But two little-known Kremlin employees were included in the lists.

Among the candidates for the elections in the Kherson region there is also State Duma deputy Igor Kastyukevich, who was involved in the deportation of children from Ukraine, and, for example, 23-year-old mobilized Muscovite Daniil Basel, who “spent 11 months in Zaporozhye.” “I decided to run because I really liked the region,” he told Important Stories, estimating his chances of winning at 80%.

In all four occupied regions, United Russia will win the elections. This forecast is given by the state-run VTsIOM. According to his data, in the Zaporozhye region the party in power will receive 89% of the votes, in the Kherson and “LPR” - 80%, and in the “DPR” - 83%.

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