Terrified Ukrainians have told of being abducted at gunpoint from their homes, held in solitary confinement and tortured for refusing to vote in Russia's "sham" referendums. Some were dragged to polling stations by volunteers carrying proreferendum leaflets, according to witnesses who also spoke of "informers" reporting anyone suspected of opposing annexation to the occupying forces.
As president Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of four areas of southern and eastern Ukraine, in a land grab that the West says it will refuse to recognise, residents in the occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, have told The Independent how separatist troops and local supporters tried to force people to vote.
Those fleeing also claimed many men were desperately heading to Ukrainian-held territories because of fears that conscription in occupied areas would start as early as next week once Moscow formalises annexation.
"Gunmen came to my house and arrested me and took me to a solitary confinement cell in a detention centre for three days," says Olena, a 70-year-old woman from the occupied town of Melitopol, in the Zaporizhzhia region.
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