MOSCOW, May 14. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said on Wednesday that the situation in Ukraine would get worse if presidential elections fail to take place on May 25.

“It’s going to be much sadder,” Naryshkin said.

“The interim authorities in Kiev are illegitimate,” Naryshkin said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel, adding the government that would emerge after the elections would not be fully legitimate either.

“Can you imagine elections in conditions of a punitive operation?” the Russian State Duma speaker asked.

“It would be hard to call presidential elections, which are going to be held when (the interim authorities in Kiev) are carrying out an army operation against their own people, fully legitimate,” Naryshkin told the students of the Plekhanov State University in Moscow on Wednesday. It’s a still a big question whether the election will take place in Luhansk and Donbass.

“However, the alternative of not holding the elections will make the situation much sadder. We need to choose the lesser of two evils,” Naryshkin stressed.

“We empathize with the people of Ukraine and we want peace and order to be restored in its territory,” the Russian State Duma speaker said.