Ukrainians involved in organising 'referendums' face prison as Russia claims majority want to join

The Ukrainian journalist Maksym Eristavi tweeted that his family in southern Ukraine had been 'forced to vote at gunpoint'

People voting at a hospital in Donetsk on Saturday. Picture: Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Ukraine’s authorities have said citizens helping to organise Russia’s so-called “referendums”, which concluded on Tuesday in the occupied territories, will face up to five years in prison for their role in orchestrating them.

“We have lists of names of people who have been involved in some way,” a presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Blick, adding Ukrainians who were forced to vote would not be punished.