A large blue-and-yellow Ukrainian national flag flew for hours over the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk as it held sham elections on Saturday.
To the embarrassment of Russian President Putin, the Ukrainian military successfully launched a giant flag attached to a helium-filled balloon and sent it over the country’s third-largest city.
The flag was unfurled in Avdiivka, about 15 miles north of Donetsk, to celebrate its anniversary on Saturday. It then drifted south towards the occupied city, angering the Russian military, who tried to shoot it down.
“Today is the 245th anniversary of the founding of Avdiyivka. We started the day with an activity – we launched the state flag on a balloon into the sky,” Vitaliy Barabash, head of the Avidiiv city military administration told Suspilne, Ukraine’s public broadcasting company. “It flew over Donetsk.”
“We can already hear the interception, they are quite angry about it,” added Barabash. “They tried to shoot down. But in the Kyiv Donetsk region, the state flag is already flying,”
Meanwhile, in Donetsk and other Moscow-occupied regions, Russian authorities are holding elections that have been denounced as fraudulent by Kyiv and the West.
Ukraine’s military released a massive flag attached to a balloon that fluttered over Russian-occupied Donetsk on Saturday. Social media/east2west news
The flag was raised to mark the 245th anniversary of the founding of Avdiyivka on Saturday. Social media/east2west news
Ukrainian officials said flying the flag over Russian-controlled territory angered its residents. Social media/east2west news
Voting for Russian-appointed legislatures began over the weekend in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions as Moscow tries to tighten its grip on the region it illegally annexed a year ago.
The vote, which is expected to end Sunday, was called a “fake election” by Ukraine’s foreign ministry and the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human rights body, said “it is a flagrant violation of international law, which Russia continues to ignore. ”
Western countries are also at loggerheads with Russia over votes at UN Security Council meetings.
The flag flies over Donetsk. Social media/east2west news
According to Ukrainian official Vitaliy Barabash, the Russians were upset with the flag and had tried to shoot it. Social media/east2west news
“You can’t hold elections in other people’s countries,” said British Ambassador Barbara Woodward.
However, Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, defended the decision and said people “actively and consciously voted for their future together with Russia.”
By Postal Wire.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
