Denisova: Some 230,000 Ukrainians took part in Russian State Duma 'elections'

"As many as 230,000 Ukrainian citizens living in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions took part in the so-called 'elections' to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. They were forced to receive [Russian] passports and were taken to Russia for voting. Another 150,000 public sector employees and students, with mandatory registration on the State Services portal, voted in 255 'information centers' in the Donetsk region and in 141 in the Luhansk region," she wrote.

According to her, more than a thousand polling stations operated illegally in the temporarily occupied Crimea.

"The invader forced state employees to go to the polls and report on the 'choice made.' In particular, in Feodosia, educators had to be photographed in the voting booth and send photos to a social networking site. In one Crimean school, they had to be photographed near the ballot box with 'right choice' ballots," she said.

Denisova said that holding elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine is a gross violation of universally recognized principles and norms of international law, especially regarding respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine's borders enshrined in the UN Charter, the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Final Act), the Statute of the Council of Europe, and the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

She expressed hope that law enforcement agencies would take measures to identify all participants in illegal actions to organize and hold elections to the Russian State Duma in the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea, the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in order to bring them to justice.

"I support the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to declare the elections to the Russian State Duma illegal. I call on the international community to follow the example of the Ukrainian parliament - not to recognize the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation as they violated the norms of international law," Denisova said.

Russia held elections to the State Duma on September 17-19. According to numerous testimonies, voting and counting took place with large-scale falsifications.

The European Union, the United States and other countries have condemned mass fraud. They also stated partial non-recognition of the election results, in particular, due to the participation in the vote of the population of the Russian-occupied Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

On September 22, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine declared the Duma election illegal.

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