UK imposes sanctions on Russian officials linked to “sham” elections in Ukraine’s regions
- 30 September, 14:29
The British government on Friday imposed sanctions on Russian officials in Ukraine’s occupied territories.
The sanctions include asset freeze and travel bans on Russian officials in Ukraine’s Russian-annexed regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Crimea.
The measures introduced on Friday are part of UK’s broader sanctions against Russia. Russia’s emergencies minister Alexander Kurenkov and the secretary of the Russian Central Election Commission Natalya Alekseevna Budarina have also been added to the sanctions list.
The British Foreign Ministry said the sanctioned officials had been involved in "sham elections" held in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied regions in September last year.
"The UK will never recognise Russia’s claims to Ukrainian territory - Crimea, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson are Ukraine," Britain's foreign minister James Cleverly said in a statement. "Russia’s sham elections are a transparent, futile attempt to legitimize its illegal control of sovereign Ukrainian territory," Cleverly went on saying.
The announcement of the sanctions comes one year after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions following elections that were rejected by the international community. The UN General Assembly condemned the annexation of these regions in October this year, with member states emphasizing that no territory gained by the use of force will be recognized as legal internationally.
