You're reading: Separatist-planned east Ukraine elections ‘illegitimate’ – Visegrad Group

The foreign ministers from the Visegrad Group countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) have said the elections that the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics are planning to hold on Nov. 2 will be illegitimate.

“The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Visegrad Group countries together with the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland deplore the decision of the separatists to hold local elections in the Donbas Region on Nov. 2 2014,” the British Foreign Office said on its website on Oct. 30.

The ministers called on the parties to observe the Minsk Protocol and act signed on Sept. 5, 2014 “towards the peaceful solution of the conflict and restoring stability based upon the full respect of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

“Simultaneously we call upon the Russian Federation to significantly contribute to the peaceful solution of the conflict by refusing to acknowledge such “elections”. The only elections that have legitimacy in Ukraine are those held under Ukrainian law,” the statement said.