Russia holds a three-day Duma vote that includes four annexed Ukrainian regions

Russians began a three-day election to the State Duma on Friday, 18 September. All 450 seats are in play through Sunday. For the first time, the ballot includes the four Ukrainian regions Moscow annexed in September 2022: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russian officials say those territories hold more than 3.5 million voters. Ukraine does not recognise the annexation or the vote. Most governments outside Russia’s observer list take the same view.

Balloting in the occupied areas and in some Russian border districts started at the end of August, officials said, because of security. The rest of the country votes over the three-day window. Central Election Commission chair Ella Pamfilova put first-day turnout at 29.43 percent. She said the highest figures came from Chechnya at 63.20 percent, Bryansk at 60.77 percent, Kherson at 58.31 percent and Tuva at 51.05 percent. Kherson, on that list, is one of the annexed regions and is not fully under Russian military control.

United Russia goes into the contest with 310 of the 450 seats, down from the 324 it won in 2021 on 49.82 percent of the list vote. The Communist Party holds 56, the Liberal Democratic Party 22, A Just Russia 27 and New People 15. Two hundred and twenty-six seats make a majority. The party already has a supermajority in the outgoing house. No party running against the war or against President Vladimir Putin is on the national ballot in a form that can win.

What Putin said on Friday

Putin accused Ukraine of interfering in the election and of blocking talks to end a war now in its fifth year. He gave no public evidence of interference beyond Ukrainian strikes, including one he said killed a local election official in occupied Zaporizhzhia. He framed the vote as proof that millions support the army. Kyiv calls the exercise a pseudo-election. Ukrainian officials note that their own national vote is suspended under martial law and that an occupying force cannot lawfully elect members of a foreign parliament on their territory.

Seven single-member constituencies were drawn in the four 2022-annexed regions: three in Donetsk, two in Luhansk, one in Kherson and one in Zaporizhzhia. Crimea, annexed in 2014, had its districts redrawn. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on 13 August that results from occupied land would be invalid even if observers from post-Soviet organisations attended.

What the first day does not settle

A 29 percent first-day turnout in a three-day vote is a midpoint, not a result. Electronic terminals in Moscow were reported to have failed in places. Bomb threats and alerts were reported and dismissed by Pamfilova. None of that changes the structure. The Duma that sits after Sunday will include members claiming to represent Ukrainian land that Russian forces do not entirely hold, elected under rules written in Moscow.

The war continues while the ballot boxes are open. The United States on Friday cleared a $2.68 billion air-defence sale to Ukraine. Trump signed a sanctions law aimed at Russia’s oil customers. Those tracks and this election will be read together next week, once the CEC prints a seat tally and United Russia claims the mandate Putin asked for.