Post election: Putin vows to continue Ukraine invasion

Russian President, Vladmir Putin has vowed to press on with the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin made this known in a post-election news conference on Monday.

He also said Russian democracy was more legitimate than in the United States, where “with mail-in voting… you can buy a vote for $10”.

Voting took place in the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine such as Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea. Overall, turnout was 77%.

Meanwhile, Putin had won a fifth term as Russian president by a landslide of 87%.

Putin faced no credible opposition candidate as the Kremlin tightly controls Russia’s political system, media and elections.

Germany called the election a “pseudo-election”, while the United States said the vote was “obviously not free nor fair”.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky said Putin was “drunk with power and is doing everything to rule forever”.