The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement according to which it sees Moscow’s plans to carry out presidential elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine “demonstrates the Russian Federation’s continued flagrant disregard for international law norms and principles.”
“Forcing millions of Ukrainian citizens who live in temporarily occupied territories or who have been forcibly transferred to Russian territory to participate in the so-called ‘elections’ is equally illegal,” the ministry also said.
The statement calls on the international community, both states and international bodies, not to recognize the outcome of the elections or even send observers, which Kyiv says would lend the elections a veneer of legitimacy. It also calls on its own citizens remaining in the occupied territories not to participate, and furthermore “avoid crowded places near ‘polling stations’ and the military infrastructure of the Russian occupation forces for their own safety, given the Russian authorities’ proclivity for provocations.”
The statement cites the Putin regime’s repeated and numerous violations of not only international law and the sovereignty of Russia’s neighbors but also the employment of anti-democratic and often brutal measures to silence any political opposition. It also emphasized the threat the aggressive policies of the Kremlin pose toward Europe and Central Asia.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also pointed out that Vladimir Putin has an outstanding arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court for his role in the kidnapping of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories for the purpose of depriving them of their national identity.
Russia has annexed Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the peninsula’s largest city of Sevastopol, which is a distinct administrative unit, following its occupation and a referendum conducted in violation of international law in mid-March 2014.
At about the same time, pro-Russian and Kremlin-sponsored separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions had declared independence from Kyiv, precipitating the War in the Donbas, as the two regions are collectively known.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin organized “referendums” in parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzia regions under the control of its military or its proxies. Even though Moscow did not manage to fully occupy these regions within their administrative borders, it claims them as part of its territory in their entirety.
Russia will carry out its presidential elections, widely expected to fail to meet any democratic standards and only meant to legitimize Putin’s continued grip on power, between March 15 to 17, 2024.
The statement stresses that “holding ‘elections’ of the President of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine [...] is illegal and will not have any legal consequences.”
The statement calls on the international community, both states and international bodies, not to recognize the outcome of the elections or even send observers, which Kyiv says would lend the elections a veneer of legitimacy. It also calls on its own citizens remaining in the occupied territories not to participate, and furthermore “avoid crowded places near ‘polling stations’ and the military infrastructure of the Russian occupation forces for their own safety, given the Russian authorities’ proclivity for provocations.”
The statement cites the Putin regime’s repeated and numerous violations of not only international law and the sovereignty of Russia’s neighbors but also the employment of anti-democratic and often brutal measures to silence any political opposition. It also emphasized the threat the aggressive policies of the Kremlin pose toward Europe and Central Asia.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also pointed out that Vladimir Putin has an outstanding arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court for his role in the kidnapping of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories for the purpose of depriving them of their national identity.
Russia has annexed Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the peninsula’s largest city of Sevastopol, which is a distinct administrative unit, following its occupation and a referendum conducted in violation of international law in mid-March 2014.
At about the same time, pro-Russian and Kremlin-sponsored separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions had declared independence from Kyiv, precipitating the War in the Donbas, as the two regions are collectively known.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin organized “referendums” in parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzia regions under the control of its military or its proxies. Even though Moscow did not manage to fully occupy these regions within their administrative borders, it claims them as part of its territory in their entirety.
Russia will carry out its presidential elections, widely expected to fail to meet any democratic standards and only meant to legitimize Putin’s continued grip on power, between March 15 to 17, 2024.
The statement stresses that “holding ‘elections’ of the President of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine [...] is illegal and will not have any legal consequences.”
Source: Ukrinform, Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, TVP World
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