Vladimir Putin’s Party Headquarters Blown Up in Occupied Nova Kakhovka: Ukraine.
Ukrainian partisans in Nova Kakhovka, a city in the seized Kherson region, blew up an office building that houses Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political organization, according to Ukraine’s National Resistance Center.
The attack was apparently carried out on Tuesday morning. According to a statement from the resistance organization, “explosions rang out in Nova Kakhovka near the entrance to the office of the occupying party ‘United Russia’ and not far from the ‘polling station.'”
“Thus, the forces of the resistance movement sent a ‘hello’ to the occupiers and stopped the fake ‘election’ process in the occupied city,” Kyiv officials added.
In #NovaKakhovka, on the temporarily occupied territory of #Kherson region, the resistance movement blew up the headquarters of putin's party
— Aurora Borealis 🤫 (@aborealis940) February 27, 2024
Currently, the enemy is trying to hide the fact of the presence of forces resisting the occupation at TOT. pic.twitter.com/0eBe985VM2
The incident comes just a few weeks before Russia’s presidential election in March, which will be the first time citizens from seized territory in southern and eastern Ukraine would be able to vote in a Russian election. Putin claimed to conquer the four territories—Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson—in the fall of 2022, but Kyiv and the West deemed the move illegitimate.
According to Ukraine’s resistance organization, Russia is attempting to “hide” the fact that the Tuesday attack was carried out by “forces resisting the occupation in [temporarily occupied territories].” Instead, to avoid “sowing panic,” Moscow stated that the explosion was caused by a drone attack.
“The Center of National Resistance calls on citizens of Ukraine not to participate in the Kremlin’s propaganda production called ‘elections,'” according to a statement released by the organization. “At the same time, the Resistance Movement notes that every collaborator who helps organize the ‘election process’ will be held accountable for their actions.”
Attacks have also been carried out in many other Russian-occupied Ukrainian locations. In September, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said that Putin’s party headquarters in Polohy, Zaporizhzhia, were burned during what the Ukrainian official described as “hellish pseudo-elections.” At the time, Russia was holding local elections in its four seized regions. Western and Kyiv officials described the process as a fraud.
According to Russian state media, a member of the United Russia party was murdered in a car bomb explosion in Nova Kakhovka in October. Ukraine has not claimed credit for either of these assaults.
Kyiv officials strongly condemned efforts to hold elections within its occupied territories, calling on world leaders in December “to resolutely condemn Russia’s intention to hold presidential elections in the occupied Ukrainian territories, and to impose sanctions on those involved in their organization and conduct.”
