United Russia elected 49 deputies who took part in the war against Ukraine, the party’s general secretary, Vladimir Yakushev, said on Monday.

He first said 86 veterans of the “special military operation” would be elected and later revised the figure to 49. The former combatants will hold about 11% of the 450 seats in the Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, where Vladimir Putin’s party won 355 seats, its highest tally ever and above its 2016 record of 343. The Communist Party took 40 seats, the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) 25, and New People 20 — all of them support the military campaign in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the figures point to “the highest level of consolidation” of Russian society around the head of state. Yabloko, the only registered party that opposed the war, was barred from the election by Russia’s Supreme Court, and the European Union called the vote a setback for democracy. The results come from a count with 95% of ballots processed, when United Russia had 57.83%, according to the election commission chief, Ella Pamfilova, up from 49.8% in 2021.