The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry will deny registration to Russian observers in the Ukrainian presidential election and has sent the relevant notice to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"I see no contradiction here. We have said clearly that the Foreign Ministry will deny registration to Russian observers in the upcoming election. [...] We have sent a relevant notice to the OSCE/ODIHR," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek on Monday.

"Even in legal terms, it's impossible to give Russian observers access to the election," he said.

"Hopefully, the Central Elections Commission will not register official Russian observers, either. It would be the absolutely wrong thing to do from the political, legal, and moral points of view," Klimkin said.

He said on January 9 that he had informed OSCE/ODIHR Director Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir in a letter inviting observers to the Ukrainian presidential election that the Foreign Ministry would not accept applications from Russian observers.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on January 18 that the OSCE had invited Russia to send observers to the Ukrainian election.