Ukraine's Foreign Ministry urged on May 6 other countries and international organizations not to recognize the results of Russia's most recent presidential election, as well as Vladimir Putin's legitimacy ahead of the inauguration.
Kyiv sees "no legal grounds for recognizing Putin as the democratically elected and legitimate president of Russia," the ministry said.
According to evidence published by election experts, observers, and media, the March 15-17 presidential election, which Putin "won" with 87% support, was the most rigged in Russia's modern history.
Estimates of vote rigging range from at least 22 million votes to about 31.6 million votes, without taking into account the online voting and the election at gunpoint in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
Russia "brutally" violated the principles of international law when it organized the so-called voting in the occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson oblasts, and Crimea, Ukraine's ministry said.
"Despite warnings from authoritative international institutions, the Russian Federation's actions once again demonstrate that its leadership does not recognize its responsibility and is unwilling to end the illegal, unprovoked, and unjustified full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine," the ministry's statement read.
Moscow also violated the provisions of "numerous international documents that form the basis of the modern system of international relations," including the Charter of the United Nations, according to the statement.
"Based on the above, as well as taking into account the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Vladimir Putin, Ukraine sees no legal grounds for recognizing him as the democratically elected and legitimate president of the Russian Federation," the ministry said.
The Russian presidential election was widely viewed as neither free nor fair, and a number of Western countries have already said they will boycott the inauguration scheduled to be held in Moscow on May 7. Some of Ukraine's allies have yet to confirm whether their representatives will be in attendance at the event.
The European Parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution on April 25 condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin's March presidential election as illegitimate.
Oleg Sukhov
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