Poland urges intl community to ignore fake referenda in Ukraine

Poland condemns the “pseudo-referenda” which were held in the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and appeals to the international community not to recognise their results, the government spokesman has said.

Vladimir Putin on Friday formally announced the annexation of four regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia citing the results of referenda carried out by the Russians in the occupied territories on September 23-27, which the West has dismissed as shams.

Reacting to the news, Piotr Mueller, the Polish government spokesman, told PAP on Friday that the actions of the Russian Federation violated the fundamental principles of international law as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.

"We call on members of the international community not to recognise the legality of the pseudo-referenda and their 'results', which can in no way reflect the will of the inhabitants of these regions who were forced to vote," he said.

Poland "unequivocally and firmly condemns Russia's organisation of illegal 'referenda'... aimed at the annexation of parts of the Ukrainian oblasts temporarily occupied by Russia," Mueller added.

He went on to say that Poland urges "the prosecution of all those involved in the conduct of the fictitious referenda, as well as of Russian people and institutions operating in the illegally occupied territories of Ukraine."

Commenting on Putin's decision, Paweł Szrot, head of the presidential office, told PAP on Friday that the annexations of Ukrainian territories and the Russian-organised referenda will never be recognised by Poland.

"Putin may as well announce the annexation of the Moon or Mars. It has no practical significance from the point of view of international law," he added.

Szrot also said that President Andrzej Duda had assured the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday that "neither referenda nor any other Russian declarations have no legal significance for Poland."

The annexation of the occupied territories in the Donbas, as well as in the south of Ukraine, is the third violation of the territorial integrity of the neighboruing country formally approved by the Kremlin. In March 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, and on February 21, three days before the invasion of Ukraine, Putin announced the recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics as independent states. The alleged "defence of the Russian-speaking population of Donbas" then served as a propaganda justification for the war.