Occupied areas of Ukraine hold staged vote on joining Russia
We ran the numbers: There are 1,463 news articles covering this topic.
56% (825) are left-leaning, 25% (368) are centrist, and 19% (270) are right-leaning.
A Kremlin-orchestrated referendum to annex parts of occupied Ukraine began on Friday, with some officials bringing votes to apartment buildings backed by armed police. Kiev and the West denounced it as a rigged election with a predetermined outcome by Moscow.
USA Today published a centrist article about how on Friday, the Group of Seven (G7) nations – representing the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – said in a statement that the "sham referenda" creates a "a phony pretext for changing the status of Ukrainian sovereign territory." Voting began Friday in four Moscow-held regions of Ukraine :officials carried ballots to apartment blocks accompanied by gun-toting police. Voting also occurred in Russia, where refugees and other residents from those regions could cast ballots.
A left-leaning article from Washington Post highlights that Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, told The Associated Press that “The Russians see an overwhelming reluctance and fear to attend the referendum and are forced to bring people... to create an image and an illusion of the vote groups of collaborators and Russians along with armed soldiers are doing a door-to-door poll, but few people open the doors to them.”
A right-leaning article from Fox News highlights how armed men accompany Russian proxies to people's home to monitor their vote in Ukraine. According to Russian-professed election results, 97% of Crimeans favoured leaving Ukraine. Only 30% of Crimeans actually participated in the referendum, according to information released following the election. Furthermore, 15% of voters backed joining Russia.
From the left
Occupied Ukraine holds Kremlin-staged vote on joining Russia
Washington Post