UN Security Council to meet over Russia’s illegal election in occupied Ukrainian territories

The U.N. Security Council will hold a meeting on March 15 to discuss illegally organized voting in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine as part of the country’s presidential election, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya announced.

Russia began three days of voting on March 15 in a pseudo-democratic presidential election that is expected to grant Vladimir Putin, who has been in power since 1999, six more years in office.

Moscow is also organizing voting in occupied Crimea and parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts in violation of international law.

The council will meet to discuss the issue at Ukraine’s request at 3:05 p.m. EDT (9:05 p.m. Kyiv time) on March 15, Kyslytsya said on X (formerly Twitter).

Read also: Russia’s descent into totalitarianism: How it happened

Ahead of the sham election, a local member of the Russian occupation's election commission was reportedly killed in occupied Berdiansk, and an office of the United Russia party in the occupied Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka was blown up.

Moscow held sham "regional elections" in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine in September last year in an attempt to consolidate its control over these regions.

Russia declared annexation of partially occupied Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk oblasts in September 2022, a step denounced by Ukraine and the international community as illegal and void.

The Crimean peninsula was illegally annexed in March 2014 following a sham referendum staged by Russia in the absence of any international observers and with armed Russian soldiers present at polling locations.

Read also: How has Crimea changed after 10 years of Russian occupation?

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