Suspilne calls Russia's Duma vote in occupied Ukraine 'pseudo-elections', Novaya Gazeta Europe calls it 'so-called elections'. Only Suspilne reports Kyiv's sanctions on 44 people

The sanctions. Suspilne, Ukraine's public broadcaster, reports that President Zelensky imposed sanctions on 44 people involved in Russia's State Duma vote in occupied Ukrainian territory. It names none of them and does not say what the sanctions do. It is the only report we hold that mentions the sanctions.

Two words for one vote.

Who condemned it. Suspilne lists seven: the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It says Ukraine's foreign ministry will not recognise the results.

The count. Novaya Gazeta Europe, a Russian outlet working in exile, looks at the vote across Russia as a whole. It asks how Just Russia (Справедливая Россия) first missed the threshold for the Duma and then reached it. It does not mention the occupied territories or the sanctions.

What is not settled - Who the 44 are, and what the sanctions do. - Whether any other government has confirmed the seven condemnations. Only Suspilne lists them. - Moscow's account. Neither report quotes Russian officials, the people sanctioned, or voters in the occupied areas.

What this is about: Ukraine has sanctioned people who helped Russia hold its parliamentary election in parts of Ukraine that Russian forces occupy.

How it got here. Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014. The same year, armed groups backed by Russia took parts of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. In February 2022 Russia launched a full-scale invasion. In September 2022 it held votes in four partly occupied regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson) and then declared them part of Russia. The UN General Assembly voted in October 2022 that those votes and the annexation had no validity. Russia has since held its own elections in these areas as if they were Russian regions.

The actors. - Russia elects its lower house of parliament, the State Duma, every five years. It counts the occupied regions as its own and held voting there. - Ukraine says the territory is Ukrainian under international law and rejects any vote that Russia organises there. Its sanctions are imposed by presidential decree. They usually freeze assets and bar dealings with the people named. - Western governments do not recognise the annexations, and several of them have sanctioned Russia since 2014.

What is at stake. A vote that Russia counts in these areas is part of its claim that the land is now Russian. When Kyiv and other governments reject the vote, they are rejecting that claim too. Sanctions on the people who ran the vote are mostly symbolic unless those people hold assets or travel where the sanctions apply.

Where it stands. The vote is over. Novaya Gazeta Europe reports that the count is still being questioned. Kyiv has named a number of people sanctioned, 44, but the reports we hold do not name who they are.