A huge blue and yellow Ukrainian national flag flew for hours over the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk as mock elections were held on Saturday.
In an embarrassing situation for Russian President Putin, the Ukrainian military managed to launch the giant flag attached to helium-filled balloons and send it over the country’s third largest city.
The flag was raised in Avdiivka, about 24 kilometers north of Donetsk, to mark its anniversary on Saturday. He then headed south toward the occupied city, irritating Russian forces, who attempted to shoot him down.
“Today marks the 245th anniversary of the founding of Avdiyivka. We started the day with activity: we launched the state flag on balloons into the sky,” Vitaliy Barabash, head of the military administration of the city of Avidiiv, told Suspilne, Ukraine’s public broadcasting company. “Flighted over Donetsk.”
“We can already hear the interceptions, they’re a little angry about it,” Barabash added. “They tried to knock him down. But over the kyiv district of Donetsk, the state, the flag is already flying.”
Meanwhile, in Donetsk and other territories occupied by Moscow, Russian authorities were holding elections that kyiv and the West denounced as a sham.
The Ukrainian army launched a huge flag attached to balloons that flew over the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk on Saturday. East2west Social Media/News
The flag was flown on Saturday to commemorate the 245th anniversary of the founding of Avdiyivka. East2west Social Media/News
Ukrainian officials said the flying of the flag over the Russian-controlled region angered its occupiers. East2west Social Media/News
Voting for Russian-installed legislatures began over the weekend in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as Moscow seeks to tighten its control over territories it illegally annexed a year ago.
The votes, which will conclude on Sunday, were called a “sham election” by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry and the Council of Europe, the continent’s main human rights body, said they “constitute a flagrant violation of international law, which “Russia continues to ignore.”
Western nations also clashed with Russia over the vote at a UN Security Council meeting.
The flag flying over Donetsk. Social Media/News east2west
According to Ukrainian official Vitaliy Barabash, the Russians are upset about the flag and have tried to tear it down. Social media/east2west news
“You can’t have elections in someone else’s country,” said British ambassador Barbara Woodward.
However, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, defended the decision, saying that people “are actively and consciously voting for their future together with Russia.”
With Pole Wires.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn