The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that the "elections" of the President of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine are illegal and will not have any legal consequences, and called on citizens not to participate in them, and the international community not to recognize their results. This is stated in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine regarding the "elections" of the President of the Russian Federation on March 14, UNN reports.
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"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasizes that the "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 - are illegal and will not have any legal consequences," the statement reads.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls the forced involvement in the so-called "elections" of millions of Ukrainian citizens who live in the temporarily occupied territories or were forcibly transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation equally illegal. "This, combined with the absence of any signs of compliance of the election campaign in Russia with generally recognized democratic principles and standards of elections, the elimination of opponents of the Russian authorities, casts doubt on the objectivity and legitimacy of any results of these 'pseudo-elections,'" the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry emphasized.
"We call on the citizens of Ukraine 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 President of the Russian Federation. For their own safety and given the propensity of the Russian authorities to provoke, we urge them to avoid crowded places near "polling stations" and military infrastructure of the Russian occupation forces on election days," the statement reads.
Ukraine also calls on foreign states and international organizations "not to send international observers to participate in 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 its results, and warns that all violators of Ukrainian legislation will be brought to legal responsibility.
The Foreign Ministry also called on international media and public figures not to help the Kremlin create the illusion of an electoral process and not to call this farce "elections" using the terminology inherent in democratic states.
"Russia's dictatorship has long had nothing to do with democracy, including open and competitive elections," the statement said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that "Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the ICC on suspicion of committing serious war crimes, has been in power for 24 years not by the free expression of the will of the people, but by manipulation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, total propaganda, destruction of any manifestations of political competition and political violence, including the murder of significant independent political figures." "The continued preservation of the aggressive and revanchist Putin regime poses an unprecedented challenge to Europe, Central Asia and other regions of the world where Russian terror and chaos could spread. Ignoring this will lead to a further increase in the threat to international peace and security," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
"As long as Vladimir Putin continues his personal power, we call on the democratic world to reaffirm its respect for human life, the rule of law and democratic values by maximizing support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the fight against Russian terror, as well as maximizing support for the goals and principles of the UN Charter through further unwavering non-recognition of the Russian occupation of our country's territory," the Foreign Ministry concluded.