Russian citizens are voting in elections for the State Duma - Russia’s parliament - on Sept. 18.
Polling stations are also open in occupied Crimea and in Russian diplomatic offices in Ukrainian cities.
In Kyiv and Odesa, activists with the right-wing parties Svoboda and Right Sector protested the elections, blocking entrances to the embassies.
In Odesa, four people were detained after they clashed with police. In Kyiv, protesters damaged the fence of the embassy and attacked one of the voters. The clashes left two protesters detained.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said during a Sept. 17 speech at the 13th annual Yalta European Strategy in Kyiv that elections in Crimea were illegal, Interfax reported.
Klimkin also said that “an attempt to organize the elections in the occupied Crimea, and on the territory of the diplomatic institutions was a conscious provocation.”
Deputy Minister for Occupied Territories Heorhiy Tuka said on 112 TV Channel on Sept. 18 that he would address the Interior Ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine about opening criminal proceedings against “those people, who were involved in organizing elections for Russia’s State Duma in Ukraine.”
He also said that there are no international observers in Crimea who would be able to monitor the elections there.
Mariana Betsa, spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, said in her Twitter account that the Russian elections in Crimea were illegitimate, and their results – worthless.
“The sanctions have to be strengthened,” she wrote.
Halyna Lomakina from the activists movement “Crimean anti-corruption front Taygan” told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Crimea Realities news outlet on Sept. 17 that the electoral campaign in Crimea was held under unfair conditions with full domination of the candidates from the ruling party.
Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia) is the biggest party in Russia’s Duma. It supports Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s State Duma has 450 lawmakers, half of whom are elected in the single nationwide constituency through party lists, and another half in local constituencies.
