Ignore Putin’s fake referendums and keep helping Ukraine

result of a vote is announced as 99% for something, you can conclude that the ballot was rigged and the riggers want you to know it. So it was this week with the that President Vladimir Putin’s men illegally organised in provinces of Ukraine. Accosted on their doorsteps by men with guns, residents “agreed” that the invading power, Russia, should annex their land. To be fair, the 99% was recorded only in Donetsk, one half of the Donbas region. In Luhansk, the other bit, support was lukewarm: only 98%. And in Kherson and Zaporizhia provinces the vote was a nail-biter: Yes was in the high 80s or low 90s.Mr Putin’s referendums, which took place over five days and ended on September 27th, were not designed to be believed, but to threaten. As went to press on September 29th, they looked set to be followed by a speech from Mr Putin to the Russian parliament, and perhaps then a formal motion to incorporate a big slice of Ukraine into the Russian Federation, as happened to Crimea in 2014.