Ukraine's envoy to UN: Russia's actions put under question legitimacy of results of 'presidential elections'

Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN, said this at a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"What is now called an 'election' in Russia, does not comply with generally recognized democratic principles and election standards. It has nothing in common with the free and fair expression of the will of the people," Kyslytsya said. "It is rather Putin's self-reappointment under the sterile conditions of the absence of any competition."

According to the ambassador, those who might have been his opponents "were killed, arrested or, at best, forced to leave the country."

Those whom the Kremlin let participate, do not even hide their technical role as a mise-en-scène for the predetermined "winner," he added.

Kyslytsya said that the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine have a special role "in this mockery of an election." Full closure from the outside world "enables the Kremlin to fabricate any turnout numbers and election results it desires," he said.

The sham election process in the temporarily occupied territories is marked with intimidation and coercion of the local population, Kyslytsya said. The Russian occupiers have elaborated a lot of means to reach this end. "Among them – threats against life, illegal detention, denial of access to healthcare and social services, threats of deportation and deprivation of property," he said.

The Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, presented today in Geneva, contains "shocking evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which remain a grim reality in the temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine," Kyslytsya said. Torture and willful killings of civilian residents, rape and sexual violence and crimes against children are on this list.

The envoy quoted a passage from the commission's conclusions. "Russian authorities, mostly in groups, conducted house searches, sometimes on multiple occasions. They threatened and intimidated victims and their family members with weapons, including by shooting near their heads or legs. Perpetrators raped the victims in their homes, or forcibly took them to premises which they had occupied." There were also cases, when women "were subjected to sexual violence as punishment for support to the Ukrainian authorities."

"Just bear this in mind when Putin's envoy tells you about the so-called 'free people's will' in the occupied territories," Kyslytsya added.

Ukraine called on the international community to resolutely condemn Russia's illegitimate intention to imitate presidential elections in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, to refrain from recognizing the results of these "elections", and to impose sanctions on those involved in their organization and conduct.

Putin has been in power for 24 years, not through the free expression of the people's will, but through manipulation of the Russian constitution, propaganda, elimination of political competition and through violence, including the assassination of prominent independent politicians, Kyslytsya said.

He recalled that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in its Resolution 2519 (2023) called for the recognition of Putin as illegitimate after the end of his current presidential term and to cease all contact with him, except for humanitarian contact and in the pursuit of peace.

The organization of illegal elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine will be added to the materials of a future trial against Putin, the diplomat said.

"We reiterate that the continued preservation of Putin's aggressive and revanchist regime poses an unprecedented challenge to the world. If not stopped, Russian terror and chaos will spread further," Kyslytsya said.

According to him, the longer the convulsions of Putin's regime last, the longer and more painful will be Russia's return to the democratic path.

The envoy emphasized that the Security Council meeting showed the complete isolation of the Russian delegation.

"There is not a single delegation that has found a single word of support of the Russian illegitimate attempts to organize 'elections' in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine!" he said.

On Friday, March 15, the UN Security Council met to discuss Russia's attempts to organize illegal "Russian presidential elections" in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.