The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Warned The Kremlin

• 18.09.2026, 14:03

The “elections” in the occupied territories will undermine the legitimacy of the entire State Duma of the Russian Federation.

From September 18 to 20, the aggressor state, the Russian Federation, will hold so-called State Duma elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. These elections are illegal, and their results are legally null and void.

This is stated in statement by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, published on Friday, September 18.

“This is a farce staged by the occupying state, which has nothing to do with democratic elections and does not create any legal basis for extending Russia’s jurisdiction over any part of Ukraine’s territory,” the Foreign Ministry emphasized.

The ministry noted that the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as the temporarily occupied parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, are an integral part of Ukraine, and their liberation from Russian occupation is a necessary condition for restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.

The inclusion in the Russian parliament of representatives elected in illegal elections held in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and other states further undermines the legitimacy of the entire State Duma of the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted.

They concluded that no “vote” illegally organized by the Russian invaders can alter the internationally recognized status of Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories.