The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine regards the intention to open representative offices of the Russian political party Just Russia-Patriots-For the Truth in Donetsk and Luhansk as further evidence of the escalation of the situation by the Russian Federation in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions not controlled by the Ukrainian government (ORDLO).

"The Russian authorities continue to openly disregard the Minsk Agreements and take steps to drag out Donbas regions currently not controlled by Ukraine into their political, economic and electoral field," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

He pointed out that after the illegal issuance of passports of citizens of the Russian Federation to the population of ORDLO; the Russian parties saw the possibility of receiving political dividends.

"The declared goal of the representative center of Just Russia is to promote the implementation of the electoral rights of 'citizens of Russia' – residents of the temporarily occupied territories – grossly violates the legislation and sovereignty of Ukraine, and opens up the field for fraud in the Russian elections. Recently, Russia has been actively discussing the organization of elections to the State Duma [Russian] in ORDLO. Ukraine has already stated that it does not recognize the legitimacy of such elections," Nikolenko said.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said that the Russian Federation should finally begin to fulfill its obligations to achieve a political and diplomatic settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict on the basis of full respect for Ukraine's sovereignty, and compliance with the requirements of Ukrainian legislation and international law.

Earlier, the party Just Russia-Patriots-For the Truth reported that the chairman of the party, Sergei Mironov, had appointed his assistant Alexei Zhigulin as the plenipotentiary representative of the chairman of the party in the territories of the so-called "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics". Zhigulin was instructed to create a representative center of the party in Donetsk and organize a consultation reception for citizens living in the territories of the so-called "DPR" and "LPR".