Ukraine Rejects Russian Elections in Occupied Territories

Ukraine has rejected in advance the results of Russia’s September parliamentary elections, which Moscow also plans to hold in occupied Ukrainian territories.

The foreign ministry in Kyiv said that any vote organized by Russia on Ukraine’s sovereign territory is illegal and that its results are therefore invalid and have no legal consequences.

Following its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions about seven months later, although it still does not fully control any of them. The annexations followed referendums staged by Russian authorities that Western countries denounced as illegitimate.

Kyiv’s statement came as a mission of observers from former Soviet states arrived in Russia to assess the conduct of the State Duma elections. Ukraine warned members of the Commonwealth of Independent States observer mission against visiting occupied Ukrainian territories.

Ukraine maintains that even the presence of foreign observers cannot legitimize the vote. “Any voting organized by Russia on the sovereign territory of Ukraine is illegal, and the results of such voting are null and void and have no legal consequences”, the foreign ministry said. It accused Moscow of attempting to use an international presence in occupied Ukrainian territories to legitimize the results.

Putin’s United Russia and other broadly pro-Kremlin parties are expected to retain their dominance of parliament after the September elections. Russia’s only registered anti-war party, Yabloko, was excluded from the election this week following a Supreme Court ruling.

(Reuters, MJA)