Five Countries Condemn Russian Elections in Occupied Ukraine
Joint statement calls the vote a 'sham' and a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Rusijos rinkimai okupuotoje Donecko srityje
Photograph: 15min.lt (embedded from source)
What this story says
- Five countries, including the UK, Canada, and Australia, condemned Russia-organised elections in occupied parts of Ukraine.
- The joint statement described the elections as a 'sham' and a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.
- The elections took place in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
- The UK's Foreign Office stated these elections are part of a wider system of occupation.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 7 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 8 of the 15 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
60/100
Craft
60/100
Hype
20/100
15 sources · methodology
Thin on the left so far
Only 1 of the 7 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
Five countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, have condemned elections organised by Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories. In a joint statement, these nations called the vote a 'sham' and a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and independence, as well as the UN Charter. The elections were held in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, specifically Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
The UK's Foreign Office stated that these elections are part of a wider system of occupation, which includes the imposition of Russian administration, law, media, education, language, and citizenship, supported by coercion and repression. The statement also called for accountability for those involved in organising the election and reaffirmed support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.
Election results
Preliminary results indicated that United Russia won 355 out of 450 seats in the Duma, the Russian lower house of parliament. This outcome would grant the party a super-majority, surpassing its previous record set in 2016.
Coverage comparison
What the coverage left out
None of the right-rated reports below mention the preliminary results showing United Russia winning 355 out of 450 seats in the Duma.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 1 time, most recently on 21 Sept 2026, 16:30, and will add the sides that appear.
How other outlets pictured it
Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.
War threat to the UK - Putin's Russia
Daily Mirror — embedded from source
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
1 rated outlet
- The Daily Mirror reported that Vladimir Putin's United Russia party won a record number of seats in the country's lower house of Parliament. It quoted the joint statement from the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway, which condemned Russia's elections as a 'sham' and a 'gross violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence'.
Centre
2 rated outlets
- 15min.lt reported that five countries, including the UK, Australia, and Canada, condemned the elections, calling them part of a wider occupation system. Le Devoir noted that Canada and four other countries denounced the vote as a 'flagrant violation of the sovereignty and independence' of Ukraine.
Right
4 rated outlets
- Right-rated reports from dagelijksestandaard.nl, Reformatorisch Dagblad, Anadolu Ajansı, and El Debate focused on the condemnation of the 'sham elections' in Ukrainian territories by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. El Debate also mentioned Brussels rejecting the outcome due to an 'erosion of democracy'.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Five Countries Condemn Russian Elections in Occupied Ukraine?
- Of the 7 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 14% are rated left, 29% are rated centre, 57% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 15. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Five Countries Condemn Russian Elections in Occupied Ukraine left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 7 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Five Countries Condemn Russian Elections in Occupied Ukraine biased?
- Five Countries Condemn Russian Elections in Occupied Ukraine is one event reported by 15 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Five Countries Condemn Russian Elections in Occupied Ukraine?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Five Countries Condemn Russian Elections in Occupied Ukraine?
- 15 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- Which countries condemned the Russian elections in occupied Ukraine?
- The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway jointly condemned the elections. They issued a statement calling the vote a 'sham' and a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.
- Where were the Russian elections held?
- The elections were held in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. These include Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
- What was the outcome of the elections in Russia's parliament?
- Preliminary results showed that United Russia won 355 out of 450 seats in the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. This result would give the party a super-majority.
Read it at the source
15 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
1Centre
2Right
4- Countries Condemn 'Sham Elections' in Ukrainian Territories (opens dagelijksestandaard.nl in a new tab)
dagelijksestandaard.nl — is dagelijksestandaard.nl biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Countries Condemn ‘Sham Elections’ in Ukrainian Territories (opens Reformatorisch Dagblad in a new tab)
Reformatorisch Dagblad — is Reformatorisch Dagblad biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, UK Condemn Russian 'Sham' Elections in 'Occupied' Ukraine (opens Anadolu Ajansı in a new tab)
Anadolu Ajansı — is Anadolu Ajansı biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Brussels Rejects the Outcome of the Russian Elections because of the "Growing and Continuing Erosion of Democracy" (opens El Debate in a new tab)
Not rated
8- Western Countries Condemn Russian Elections in Russian-Occupied Ukrainian Territories (opens insider.gr in a new tab)
insider.gr — is insider.gr biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Countries Condemn 'Sham Elections' in Ukrainian Territories (opens welingelichtekringen.nl in a new tab)
welingelichtekringen.nl — is welingelichtekringen.nl biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Countries Condemn 'Sham Elections' in Ukrainian Territories (opens Nieuws.nl in a new tab)
- Western Condemnation of Russian Elections in Occupied Ukrainian Territories (opens Business Daily in a new tab)
Business Daily — is Business Daily biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Norway Condemns Russia's Elections in Russian-Occupied Ukrainian Territories (opens aftenbladet.no in a new tab)
aftenbladet.no — is aftenbladet.no biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Norway Condemns Russia's Elections in Russian-Occupied Ukrainian Territories (opens Nettavisen in a new tab)
Nettavisen — is Nettavisen biased? Our profile of this outlet
- UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway Condemn Duma Elections (opens Haberler in a new tab)
- Joint statement on Russia’s sham elections in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories (opens GOV.UK in a new tab)
How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
