Ukraine has dubbed the elections being held by Russia in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine as “illegal.” A statement issued by the Ukrainian foreign ministry on Friday stated that “holding “elections” of the President of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine – is illegal and will not have any legal consequences.”
The statement added that Moscow’s forcing of Ukrainian citizens who live in these occupied territories to join Russia was equally illegal and called into question the objectivity and legitimacy of any results of these “pseudo-elections.”
“We urge Ukrainian citizens who live in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or are forced to stay in the territory of the Russian Federation not to participate in the “pseudo-elections” of the Russian President. On election days, we urge them to 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.
Russia has so far not commented on the Ukrainian statement.
Russia’s elections are to be held from March 15-17 in which President Putin’s victory seems a foregone conclusion. Popular Opposition figure Alexei Navalny who was housed in a prison near the Arctic Circle on February 16 of what Russian authorities say was a heart attack. Another Opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin had to withdraw because of discrepancies in the number of signatures according to the Russian Central Election Commission.
Russia has also been plagued by Ukrainian-based fighters who have carried out recent attacks in its border regions in the run-up to the elections.
Calling upon the international community to act on youthe statement concluded by saying that “Ukraine calls on foreign states and international organizations not to send international observers to participate in yet another farce that the Kremlin is passing off as a presidential election, organized by it, in particular, on the sovereign territory of Ukraine, to refrain from recognizing the results of these “elections,” and warns that all violators of Ukrainian legislation will be brought to justice.”
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