The world must not recognize any results of the Russian occupiers' State Duma elections held in the occupied territories of Ukraine, and should instead continue to strengthen Ukrainian defense and sanctions pressure on Russia, believes Member of Parliament of Ukraine and leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko.
"The significance of these pseudo-elections does not lie in turnout figures or fabricated results. What is far more important is what they reveal about the intentions of the Russian leadership. Instead of an order to cease fire, Moscow has sent a different signal: it has continued the forcible integration of Ukrainian territories into the Russian political, legal, and administrative space. The Kremlin is not merely holding occupied territories by military force. It is consistently trying to create the appearance that they belong to Russia and to make the occupation irreversible," Poroshenko wrote on Facebook on Monday.
He emphasized that this is precisely why these "elections" are not an internal Russian affair, but rather another attempt to change reality by force and another manifestation of Russian aggression under the guise of elections and expression of will.
"While the democratic world searches for a path to negotiations, Russia continues through its actions to expand the space of aggression, acting according to the logic of coercion and absorption. Therefore, we should not be interested in the figures that the Russian electoral machine will announce. What matters is something else: the Kremlin is once again demonstrating that it is not ready to abandon its claims to Ukrainian territories," Poroshenko stressed.
As reported, elections to the Russian State Duma took place on September 18–20. Their holding was also illegally organized in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
