The UK added Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) to its sanctions list for organizing sham elections and referendums in occupied Ukrainian territories.

The list includes Russia's Central Election Commission, the state body that organised this month's sham elections and last year's sham referendums

The U.K. has announced new sanctions against Russian officials for their involvement in organizing so-called elections in occupied territories of Ukraine

Sham elections were held in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, which include Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea, from Sept. 8 to Sept. 10

The announcement of these sanctions comes one year on from Russia's illegal attempt to annex the Ukrainian oblasts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk after falsified and illegitimate sham referendums

In October 2022, 143 states voted to condemn Russia's attempted and illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory at the UN General Assembly

1,600 individuals and entities have been sanctioned by the U.K. since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine