Regnum hails a 'record turnout' in 'Zaporozhye region'; the Guardian calls it a 'tightly controlled vote' and Verstka says 'occupied territories of Ukraine'

The result. The Guardian says United Russia won 355 of 450 Duma seats, beating its 2016 record of 343. It calls these figures preliminary. No other report we hold gives a seat count.

The turnout. Two Regnum interviews say turnout passed 59%, against a forecast of 53%, and that more than 62.6 million people voted. Both cite the Central Election Commission. No other report gives a turnout figure.

Five outlets, five accounts of one vote:

Who is heard. Every voice we hold on turnout is a Russian official, analyst or consultant. The Guardian says the elections were widely criticised, but in the text we hold it does not say who criticised them. No report quotes a voter from the occupied areas.

What is not settled - The final seat count. The Guardian's figures are preliminary. - Turnout in the occupied regions alone. No report gives it. - The EU sanctions. We hold a Verstka headline and no text beneath it. We do not know who is targeted or when.

This story is about Russia holding its national parliamentary election in parts of Ukraine that its army occupies.

How it got here. Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. The same year, forces backed by Russia took parts of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east. In February 2022 Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In September 2022, after votes it organised in occupied areas, Russia declared that it had annexed four Ukrainian regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. It did not control the whole of any of them. Ukraine rejected the annexation. In October 2022 the UN General Assembly voted to condemn it as invalid. Most states still treat these areas as Ukrainian land under occupation.

The actors. The State Duma is the lower house of Russia's parliament. It has 450 seats and is elected every five years; the last election was in 2021. United Russia is the governing party and backs President Vladimir Putin. Holding the vote in occupied regions treats them as ordinary Russian districts. That is why Russian state media call them "new regions". The European Union has sanctioned Russia since 2014 and widened those sanctions after the 2022 invasion. It has treated earlier Russian votes in occupied areas as illegitimate.

What is at stake. Holding a Duma vote in occupied Ukraine is a way of claiming that land. If the claim goes unanswered, it grows harder to undo. The Guardian says the result is likely to be used as evidence of support for the war. A supermajority lets the governing party pass laws, and change the constitution, without other parties.

Where it stands. Voting closed on 20 September. The Guardian reports preliminary results. A Verstka headline says the EU has announced sanctions over the vote in occupied territory. We hold no text that says what those sanctions are.