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Western countries prohibit Lugansk election chief from speaking at UN Security Council

According to Sweden’s deputy permanent envoy to the UN, inviting an official from the self-proclaimed republic would set a dangerous precedent

A session of the UN Security Council AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

A session of the UN Security Council

© AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

UN, October 30. /TASS/. Western nations have prohibited Yelena Kravchenko, the head of the Central Election Commission of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), from delivering a report to the UN Security Council on the situation in Ukraine in the run-up to the November 11 elections in Donbass.

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UN Security Council to hold session on Ukraine ahead of Donbass election — source

During Tuesday’s vote on the issue, representatives of seven nations voted against inviting Kravchenko to the Security Council session on Ukraine, seven abstained, and only Russia voted in favor.

According to Carl Skau, Sweden’s deputy permanent envoy to the UN, Kravchenko does not represent the Ukrainian government or the civil society, and her presence would therefore set "a dangerous precedent."

Meanwhile, Russia’s UN envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, said he was surprised by the fact that none of the countries that sought to convene the UN meeting on the situation in Ukraine, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Poland and The Netherlands "even bothered to think of inviting the representatives of those who would be the focus of discussion, namely representatives of those regions [DPR and LPR]."

Besides, the Russian diplomat said that the Western nations "wanted the session to be held behind closed doors, so that they could later tell the media only what they want to reveal."

"We have long been aware of their methods of work at the Security Council and condemn their double standards," Nebenzya added. "That is why, for the sake of the spirit of transparency, we insisted on an open discussion and invited DPR and LPR election chiefs to take part."

The decision to hold early elections in the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) was made a week after DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko was killed in a terrorist attack on August 31. Moscow described the vote as a necessary measure. According to Russia’s envoy to the Contact Group on Ukraine, Boris Gryzlov, the Minsk Package of Measures regulates only municipal elections in Donbass. The voting to choose executive heads and elect parliaments is not a municipal one and, therefore, constitutes no violation of the Minsk accords.

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