Russia’s parliamentary election for the first time is being held in Ukraine’s regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the start of its full-scale invasion more than 4 1/2 years ago. It's a way for the Kremlin to cement its territorial gains in the war. While the vote is held for three days from Friday to Sunday to help boost turnout, the Russia-held parts of Ukraine and some areas along the Ukrainian border actually started some early balloting since the end of August. Officials said they added days of voting for security reasons. Ukraine vigorously denounced the voting in the Russian-held areas as illegal and urged foreign governments and international organizations not to recognize it.

Russia’s liberal opposition Yabloko party says that one of its election observers lost consciousness while being arrested by police at a St. Petersburg polling station. The happened incident happened Saturday on the second day of a tightly controlled parliamentary election. The voting to elect members of the State Duma is Russia’s first parliamentary election since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The three-day election features virtually no opposition and is all but certain to secure the Kremlin’s political dominance. Yabloko said that officials at the polling station accused a party election observer of attempting to “disrupt the elections” and called the police which “used force” against him.