Statement by International IDEA on the Russian Federation’s planned elections for the State Duma in the occupied territories of Ukraine
International IDEA condemns the Russian Federation’s decision to organize elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine as part of the September 2026 elections to the State Duma, including in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and occupied parts of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions. This decision represents Russia’s latest attempt to integrate occupied Ukrainian territory into the Russian Federation’s constitutional and political order and consolidate its illegal attempt at annexation.
Organizing voting for an occupying power’s legislature on the territory of another state is unlawful. The planned Russia-organized elections violate Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Such elections are incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations, including the prohibition on the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, and with the principle that territory may not be acquired by force.
International IDEA recalls United Nations General Assembly resolutions 68/262 of 27 March 2014 and ES-11/4 of 12 October 2022, which affirm Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, reject the Russian Federation’s illegal attempt to annex Ukrainian territory, and call upon states and international organizations not to recognize any purported alteration of the status of the territories concerned.
Occupation does not transfer sovereignty to the occupying power. Any electoral process organized by the Russian Federation in the occupied territories of Ukraine, and any purported results attributed to those territories, will have no validity under international law and will not confer lawful representative authority or a mandate in respect of Ukraine or its population. International IDEA calls on states, international organizations and parliamentary bodies not to recognize or otherwise validate these elections. Since no election observation activity can remedy the underlying illegality, International IDEA urges institutions and individuals to refrain from any form of participation that could be used to portray elections in occupied Ukrainian territory as internationally recognized or endorsed.
International IDEA reiterates its support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, and for the exclusive right of the Ukrainian people to determine their political future under Ukraine’s constitutional order.
