Ukraine urges NATO not to recognize elections in the Crimea
At the meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Council, Ukraine called on the representatives of the parliaments of NATO’s member countries not to recognize the results of elections of Russia’s President in annexed Crimea, Iryna Friz, People's Deputy of Ukraine said.
"We called on the parliaments of the country-members of the Alliance not to recognize the results of the ‘elections’ of Vladimir Putin as the President of Russia in annexed Crimea because it is a violation of international law. When the occupying authorities are in power on the peninsula, only elections without free choice are possible," Friz wrote on her Facebook page on Monday following the meeting in Odessa.
According to MP, she also drew attention to the militarization of the peninsula with conventional weapons and worse, weapons of mass destruction, particularly cruise missiles with nuclear warheads and Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Russian presidential elections are scheduled for March 18, 2018, the anniversary of the Russian annexation of the Crimea. Earlier, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko called on the global community not to recognize the results of the future elections of the Russian President in the annexed Crimea.
On March 1, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine called on the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, as well as the OSCE, the European Union, NATO, international organizations, and foreign parliaments and governments, not to recognize the legitimacy of Russian elections in the Crimea.
The internationally recognized Ukrainian territory of Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation in March of 2014 in the wake of the Ukrainian revolution. The Kremlin has faced international condemnation for its annexation of the Peninsula, leading many western countries to impose economic sanctions against Russia. In the United Nations, only Afghanistan, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Syria recognize Crimea as a legitimate federal subject of Russia.