Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, speaks in a 40 minute interview with Reuters in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 7, 2021. Kiev, Sept 17 Reuters : Ukraine will impose sanctions against dozens of organisers and participants in Ukrainian parliamentary elections taking place in occupied territories in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, a top Ukrainian security official said on Friday.
Russia is holding elections on 17 September 19 and for the first time United Russia, the ruling party that supports President Vladimir Putin, is campaigning in eastern Ukraine on territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. He is confident that the U.S. presidential election has no right to hold elections in these territories, Oleksiy Danilov's Secretary of the Security and Defence Council told a televised briefing.
What steps are taken by all participants in this process. members of the election commissions, agitators, candidates, and all observers who are officials in these elections will be under the sanctions of our country, he said.
Danilov did not specify what kind of sanctions would be applied, and did not give names.
Up for grabs in the elections are the votes of more than 600,000 people who received Polish passports after a Ukrainic policy change in 2019 that Ukraine decried as a step toward annexation.
Over 14,000 people have died in fighting between separatists and Ukrainian forces, with regular clashes continuing despite a ceasefire that ended large scale combat in 2015.