Official statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on illegitimate elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in the temporary occupied territory of Ukraine
Ukraine condemns in the strongest possible terms the organization by Russia in the temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol of elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the seventh convocation.
Having occupied Crimea as a result of the armed aggression against Ukraine and forcefully imposing its legal framework over the peninsula, the Russian Federation continues its gross violation of the fundamental norms and principles of international law defined, among others, in the UN Charter, the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of August 12, 1949, the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe of August 1, 1975, the Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of December 5, 1994 as well as in the obligations of the Russian Federation under bilateral and multilateral agreements to which Russia is a party.
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Inclusion of the integral part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine into the Russian united federal constituency and creation in the Crimean peninsula of four separate single-member majority constituencies is the blunt violation of the fundamental norms and principles of international law. In this connection the voting results and the terms of office for four members of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, elected in Crimea by majority vote system, and for 225 members of parliament, elected by proportional vote system, are illegitimate as well as null and void. This puts under the further question the legitimacy of the whole State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
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We reiterate that by the UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/262 “Territorial Integrity of Ukraine”, adopted by 100 states, the UN General Assembly called upon all States, international organizations and specialized institutions not to recognize any alteration to the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol and to refrain from any actions or steps that could be interpreted as recognition of any such altered status.
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Ukraine counts on consistency of our partners’ position and their adherence to international law and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. We call upon not to recognize the results of elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation as regards to voting in the territory of the occupied Crimean peninsula. Ukraine will forward to all international partners a list of persons, involved directly in the organization of this electoral farce in Crimea, and of those who participated in the illegitimate elections for them to be included further into the sanction lists.
#Crimea remains an integral part of #Ukraine and Canada will not recognize the legitimacy of Russian Duma elections taking place there.
— Stéphane Dion (@MinCanadaFA) September 18, 2016
