Ukraine calls Russian State Duma elections in occupied territories illegal and void
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Russia’s State Duma elections in occupied Ukrainian territories are illegal. (Photo: REUTERS/Ramil Sitdikov/File Photo)
Russia will hold so-called State Duma elections from Sept.
18 to 20 in temporarily
occupied Ukrainian territories, elections that are illegal and whose
results are legally null and void, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement
on Sept. 18.
“This is a farce by the occupying state that has nothing to
do with democratic elections and creates no legal basis for extending Russia’s
jurisdiction to any part of Ukraine’s territory,” the ministry said.
The ministry said the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the
city of Sevastopol, as well as the temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk,
Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson oblasts, are integral parts of Ukraine, and
that their liberation from Russian occupation is a necessary condition for
restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized
borders.
Seating representatives elected in illegal elections held in
temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and other countries would further
deprive the entire Russian State Duma of legitimacy, the ministry said.
It added that no “vote” illegally organized by Russian
occupying forces changes the internationally recognized status of Ukraine’s
temporarily occupied territories.
On Aug. 13, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry warned observers from
the Commonwealth of Independent States against visiting Ukrainian territories
temporarily occupied by Russia, where the aggressor state plans to illegally
hold voting in the State Duma elections.
On Sept. 10, Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service said
Russia could resort to provocations
and terrorist attacks under a “false flag” in Ukraine’s temporarily
occupied territories during the State Duma elections.
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