Georgia Condemns ‘Elections’ in Donetsk and Luhansk
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, November 13
The government of Georgia has condemned the “elections” in the occupied regions of Ukraine and stated that Georgia firmly supports the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The so-called elections in Luhansk and Donetsk were held on 11 November.
“The conduction of such illegal ‘elections’ in the regions, where due to Russia’s effective control the Ukrainian authorities are unable to exercise their legitimate jurisdiction, grossly violates the fundamental norms and principles of international law and is interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry says.
“This completely contradicts the commitments under the Minsk Agreements and prevents the peaceful resolution of the conflict,” the ministry press release reads.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia says that the country “unequivocally supports” the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders.
The crisis in Ukraine began with protests in the capital city of Kiev in November 2013 against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to reject a deal for greater economic integration with the European Union. After a violent crackdown by state security forces unintentionally drew an even greater number of protesters and escalated the conflict, President Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014, Council on Foreign Relations reports, a leading foreign policy organization.
The organisation says that in March 2014, before formally annexing the peninsula, Russian troops took control of Ukraine’s Crimea region, after Crimeans voted to join the Russian Federation in a disputed local referendum.
Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the need to protect the rights of Russian citizens and Russian speakers in Crimea and southeast Ukraine. The crisis heightened ethnic divisions, and two months later pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine held a referendum to declare independence from Ukraine.
