Thank you, Mr Chair.
I will get straight to the point. The United Kingdom condemns electoral violations and the suppression of opposition voices during the Russian elections, as well as the breaches of Ukrainian sovereignty in conducting illegal elections on Ukrainian territory.
These Russian elections starkly underlined the depth of repression under President Putin's regime, which seeks to silence any opposition to his illegal war.
As my Foreign Secretary has said, President Putin removes his political opponents, controls the media, and then crowns himself the winner. This is not democracy.
And as many of us have said regularly in this Council, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia will always be Ukrainian; holding Russia's presidential elections in these regions does not alter this fact. These sham elections are a further violation of the UN Charter and a fraud, nothing more.
Mr Chair,
We all agreed in Moscow, Istanbul and Astana that implementation of OSCE commitments by one participating State is a matter of legitimate concern to all participating States.
So it is of legitimate concern to this Council that Russia has failed to uphold its OSCE commitments guaranteeing that the will of the people would be expressed freely and fairly. Any candidate who expressed anti-war views was swiftly disqualified. With only 3 Kremlin-approved challengers, the outcome of this election was never in any doubt.
And it is of legitimate concern to this Council that Russia chose not to invite OSCE observers. That decision runs directly contrary to the OSCE commitments made by the Russian Federation, including commitments made at Copenhagen in 1990 and in Istanbul in 1999.
The Moscow Mechanism report of 2022 left no room for doubt about the extent of political repression in Russia then. And the death of Alexei Navalny just weeks before the election was a tragic reminder of the severity of political repression in Russia today. Once again, the United Kingdom calls on Russia to release all political prisoners immediately, including British-Russian dual national Vladimir Kara-Murza. He must be released on humanitarian grounds for urgent medical treatment.
Mr Chair,
The United Kingdom condemns Russia's failure to uphold our shared OSCE principles and commitments. We call on Russia to end aggression beyond its borders and repression within its borders. Russia must withdraw all its forces from the entirety of Ukraine. And, I confirm that the United Kingdom will continue to hold Russia to account in this Council for implementation of its OSCE commitments and for the consequences of its actions for our shared regional security.
I thank you Mr Chair.
