Kiev does not plan to sever diplomatic relations with RF over Crimean elections – Minister – World

KIEV, September 22. / TASS /. Kiev does not intend to sever diplomatic relations with Moscow over the elections to the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament) held in Crimea and areas not controlled by the Donbass government. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in a TV interview with Canal DOM on Wednesday.

“Diplomatic relations should have been severed in 2014. Now something mega-catastrophic must happen to reverse this issue, because severing diplomatic relations is the ultimate punishment,” Kuleba said.

The minister said it would not be advantageous to sever diplomatic relations with Russia.

“I understand that’s a nice slogan, but there’s no benefit. We have virtually no relationship, but it’s an unreasonable measure to just try to break them up,” Kuleba said.

For the first time, residents of Donbass who received Russian citizenship were able to participate in the process of forming the Russian parliament. About 50 polling stations were made available for voting in the Rostov region. Those who opted for online voting had to pre-register by confirming their personal details on the register’s public portal. Andrei Burov, chairman of the regional electoral turmoil, told a press conference on Monday that nearly 50,000 residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (RDP and RPL respectively) had voted in the Rostov region. In addition, 162,000 voters of the RPD and RPL requested the online vote, he added.

After a coup d’état in Ukraine in February 2014, the authorities in Crimea and Sevastopol decided to hold a referendum on reunification with Russia. In the March 16 poll, more than 80% of those eligible to vote participated. Unification with Russia was supported by 96.7% and 95.6% in Crimea and Sevastopol respectively. On March 18, the Russian President signed a treaty on the accession of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to the Russian Federation. On March 21, the treaty was ratified by the Federal Assembly. Disregarding the indisputable results of the referendum, Kiev refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.