WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine condemns Russian plans for elections on occupied territory

Ukraine on Saturday strongly condemned Russian plans to hold presidential elections next spring on occupied territory, declaring them "null and void" and pledging to prosecute any observers sent to monitor them.

Russia's upper house set the country's presidential election this week for next March, and chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko said residents in four occupied Ukrainian regions would be able to vote for the first time.

Russia claims to have annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions in the east and south of Ukraine during referenda last year dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a sham, but does not fully control any of them.

It also seized the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

"We call on the international community to resolutely condemn Russia's intention to hold presidential elections in the occupied Ukrainian territories, and to impose sanctions on those involved in their organization and conduct," Ukraine's foreign ministry said in a statement.

It also warned countries against sending observers to the "pseudo-elections", saying offenders would "face criminal responsibility".

"Any election in Russia has nothing to do with democracy. They serve only as a tool to keep the Russian regime in power," the ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he would run for president again, a move expected to keep him in power until at least 2030.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Battlegroup East thwarts Ukrainian attack, rotation attempt on southern Donetsk direction

Russian troops thwarted an attack and disrupted a rotation attempt of Ukraine’s 59th Motorized Brigade near DPR’s Novodonetskoye, Battlegroup East Spokesman Oleg Chekhov told TASS.

"Forces of Battlegroup East continue to perform their duties on the southern Donetsk direction. With support of artillery and army aviation, an attack of the 58th Motorized Brigade was thwarted and its personnel rotation was disrupted near Novodonetskoye. Artillery fire hit temporary deployment positions of this brigade near Urozhaynoye, and of the 118th Territorial Defense Brigade near Makarovka," he said.

According to Chekhov, heavy flamethrower systems also destroyed enemy personnel in strongholds near Novomikhailovka, while bombers struck concentrations of Ukrainian personnel and equipment near Praskoviyevka.·"The enemy's losses amounted to up to 80 militants and two vehicles," the spokesman added.

Reuters/Tass