MFA of Ukraine calls on Russian Federation not to involve residents of occupied territory to participate in election to the State Duma

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine calls on Russia to cancel the decision to attract Ukrainians living in the occupied Donbas to participate in the election to the State Duma, which will be held in September. This is said in the MFA statement.

The MFA expressed strong protest in connection with the approval by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation of the decision to involve the population of the temporarily occupied territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine in the election to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation scheduled for September this year by participating in electronic voting.

The MFA of Ukraine noted that the organization of the electoral process in the occupied territory of Ukraine and the involvement of the local population, to which Russian citizenship was forcibly imposed, casts doubt on the legitimacy of the election results.

"We call on the international community to condemn this Russia's move, not to recognize the results of this election in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and to increase political and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation to end international illegal actions against Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Ukraine demands from the Russian Federation to cancel all illegal decisions concerning the temporarily occupied territories and to stop taking steps aimed at further integration of population of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine into the political and socio-legal space of the Russian Federation", - the Ukrainian MFA said in the statement.

The department called the actions of the Russian side a gross violation of the norms and principles of international law, the Constitution and the current legislation of Ukraine.

"Despite all attempts by Ukraine to stabilize the situation in the conflict zone, the Russian party neglects the efforts of the Normandy format and the Trilateral Contact Group to find effective ways to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict on the basis of international law and respect for Ukraine's sovereignty. Russia's latest actions are particularly cynical given the degradation of the security situation in the conflict zone, which is caused by regular violations of the ceasefire by the Russian occupation forces, as well as by further deterioration of the humanitarian and socio-economic situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine", - the MFA noted.