APPEAL
of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
to the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the GUAM Parliamentary Assembly, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and the heads of state, parliaments and governments of the countries of the world on the non-recognition of the so-called elections to the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation
On 18-20 September 2026, voting purportedly took place in the russian federation in the so-called elections to the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation.
According to the results published by the central election commission of the russian federation, the “United Russia” party received 57.83 per cent of the votes and thus, according to the russian “electoral authorities”, secured 349 of the 450 parliamentary seats.
The russian federation committed a fundamental violation of international law by holding elections to one of its state authorities in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.
The russian federation has no basis whatsoever under international law to extend the application of its electoral legislation and procedures to the territory of sovereign Ukraine or to use the results of such voting to constitute its own state authorities.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly explicitly stated that the russian federation’s organisation of voting in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine is contrary to international law, violates Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and that the results of such so-called elections have no legal validity under international law and cannot acquire any.
In a number of resolutions, including resolutions 68/262 and ES-11/4, the United Nations General Assembly reaffirmed the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders and condemned the russian federation’s attempt to illegally annex parts of the territory of Ukraine.
The russian federation’s holding of so-called elections in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine does not and cannot alter the internationally recognised status of that territory. Temporary occupation does not confer sovereignty. Coercion does not constitute a free expression of the will of the people. Illegal voting does not confer legitimacy. The occupying Power acquires no sovereign rights over the temporarily occupied territory and may not use its temporary control to alter that territory’s political or legal status. Any attempts to hold elections, establish representative bodies or constitute authorities in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine entail no legal consequences for its status under international law and cannot serve as grounds for recognising the occupying Power’s sovereignty over that territory.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine condemns the practice of coercing citizens of Ukraine residing in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine into participating in illegal russian so-called elections. Such actions constitute a gross violation of the rules of international humanitarian law and form part of a policy of forcibly integrating the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine into the legal and political sphere of the aggressor State. The so-called voting results obtained under conditions of occupation by the armed forces of the russian federation, pressure and intimidation of the population are legally null and void and cannot give rise to any legal consequences.
Any mandates, decisions, protocols or other results of such voting cannot give rise to any consequences under international law concerning the status of the relevant part of the territory of Ukraine.
Furthermore, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine emphasises that the mere presence of ballot papers, polling stations and a voting procedure does not transform a political spectacle into democratic elections, because democratic elections are not a formal voting procedure, but a free and informed expression of the will of citizens in conditions of genuine political competition, freedom of expression, political pluralism, equality of participants, independent oversight and effective legal protection.
As is well known, the European Commission for Democracy through Law, in its Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, sets out the fundamental principles of electoral law: universal suffrage, equality, free expression of the will of the people, secret voting and direct voting, as well as ensuring respect for fundamental human and civil rights and freedoms, the impartial organisation of elections and an effective system of appeals.
There was a systemic failure to ensure these very basic conditions during the so-called elections to the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation.
The so-called elections took place without genuine political competition.
The so-called electoral process in the russian federation took place amid a systematic narrowing of the political space, the persecution of opposition politicians, and restrictions on freedom of expression and on the activities of independent media and civil society organisations.
Particularly telling is the exclusion from participation in the federal component of the so-called elections of an opposition political party that opposes the russian federation’s war against Ukraine. On the eve of voting day, the supreme court of the russian federation banned this party from participating in the so-called parliamentary elections; its representatives also faced criminal and administrative persecution. Thus, citizens of the russian federation were deprived of the opportunity to make a meaningful choice between genuine political alternatives.
Political competition cannot exist where potential competitors are eliminated before voting begins, critics of the authorities are persecuted, and alternative political positions are criminalised. Under such conditions, voters are formally allowed to vote, but their so-called choice is determined even before polling stations open.
Fair, democratic elections require a free and pluralistic information environment, which has been completely destroyed in the russian federation: the work of independent media is blocked, criticism of the authorities and the armed forces is criminalised, and dissent is persecuted. Individuals expressing opposition views are systematically persecuted by the law enforcement agencies of the russian federation, including through unlawful restrictions on their liberty, arbitrary imprisonment and, in certain cases, physical elimination. Under such conditions, voters are deprived of the opportunity to receive and disseminate alternative information freely, which is incompatible with the basic standards of democratic elections.
The so-called elections took place in the absence of independent international and domestic oversight. The russian federation deliberately failed to invite the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and other OSCE representatives to conduct independent international observation of the so-called elections. On 6 August 2026, ODIHR and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly stated that this refusal was inconsistent with the commitments undertaken by OSCE participating States under the 1990 Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the OSCE and deprived voters and the international community of an independent assessment of the electoral process. Independent domestic citizen observation was likewise substantially restricted. For a long time, the russian authorities had persecuted independent observers, thereby sharply restricting opportunities for public oversight.
Thus, external independent oversight was eliminated while the scope for domestic independent oversight was substantially restricted. An electoral process in which the authorities themselves determine the limits of political competition, restrict independent observation and at the same time control the electoral administration cannot be considered either transparent or democratic.
In Resolution 2677 (2026), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe concluded that the process conducted in the russian federation on 18–20 September 2026 did not meet the fundamental conditions for free and fair elections and could not be considered a genuine expression of the will of citizens of the russian federation. Accordingly, the state duma constituted as a result of that process cannot be considered a democratically elected or legitimate representative body of the citizens of the russian federation.
The spectacle called “elections” took place in defiance of the legal substance of democratic elections, under conditions in which political competition had been destroyed, the opposition was persecuted and dissent was suppressed. Russian legislation and the way it is applied created conditions in which political disagreement can become grounds for administrative or criminal persecution.
As a result, the so-called electoral process failed to ensure the necessary freedom for citizens to form their political will. Elections in which the authorities determine not only the voting rules but also the limits of permissible political thought are, by their legal nature, not free elections.
Taken together, the circumstances set out above point not to isolated shortcomings in the so-called electoral process, but to the systematic negation of its democratic essence.
Before voting began, the range of political alternatives had been narrowed, opposition forces had been eliminated, critics of the authorities were being persecuted, access to alternative information was restricted, and independent international and domestic public oversight had been substantially curtailed.
Consequently, the spectacle conducted on 18–20 September 2026 does not meet the fundamental standards of democratic elections and cannot be regarded as a genuine, free expression of the will of the people.
The so-called elections in the russian federation amounted to the formalisation of a predetermined configuration of power. Voting was used solely as a façade to preserve the existing totalitarian regime, whose political parameters had been determined long before voting day, particularly in the context of the continuation of the russian federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the temporary occupation of part of its territory.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proceeds from the position that the formal conduct of voting cannot be used to confer international legitimacy on a state authority constituted as a result of such a process. This applies in particular to voting results in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, which can under no circumstances have consequences under international law.
Democratic tradition requires that members of parliament actually be elected by the people rather than appointed. In democratic States, members of parliament, as representatives of the people, acquire their mandates through the free expression of the will of voters and are elected representatives of the people rather than appointees of office holders or public officials. In the russian federation, however, what took place was not a free and democratic election of the people’s representatives, but the de facto appointment of predetermined individuals to a representative body. Therefore, members appointed in this manner have not acquired and could not have acquired legitimacy.
In view of the foregoing, and with profound respect for democratic standards of human and civil rights, in particular the right to the free expression of the will of the people and the principle of popular sovereignty, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine:
emphasises that the so-called elections conducted by the russian federation on 18–20 September 2026 in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine are illegal and give rise to no consequences under international law concerning the legal status of the relevant part of the territory of Ukraine;
does not recognise the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation, constituted as a result of the so-called elections of 18–20 September 2026, as a legitimate and democratically elected representative body of the russian federation;
does not recognise the legitimacy of the members of the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation;
emphasises that, for many years, the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation has played a key role in providing political and legal support for the armed aggression against Ukraine, the illegal temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine and attempts at its illegal annexation; the new composition of the state duma must therefore be considered in the light of that body’s institutional responsibility for crimes committed as a result of the russian federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine;
does not recognise any political, legal or other consequences of the aforementioned elections, including mandates and decisions based on their results;
confirms that Ukraine will refrain from political, inter-parliamentary and other interaction with the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation and other authorities of the russian federation constituted as a result of the so-called elections.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine calls upon the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the GUAM Parliamentary Assembly, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the heads of state, parliaments and governments of the countries of the world, and the entire international community:
1) not to recognise any results of voting conducted by the russian federation in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, or any mandates, decisions or other consequences of such voting;
2) to prevent the results of the so-called elections organised and conducted by russian occupation administrations in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine from being used to legitimise the occupation, illegal annexation or any other actions aimed at altering the internationally recognised status of the territory of Ukraine;
3) not to recognise the results of the so-called elections to the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation as having constituted a legitimate democratic representative body of state authority;
4) not to cite the composition of the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation as evidence of the representative nature of the russian authorities, and to take account of the circumstances set out in this Appeal in bilateral and multilateral relations with the russian federation;
5) to refrain from political, inter-parliamentary and other interaction with the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation constituted as a result of the aforementioned so-called elections, except for interaction directly necessary to end the russian federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine, restore a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine, secure the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war and unlawfully detained civilians, ensure the return of illegally deported and forcibly transferred citizens of Ukraine, and address other urgent matters of an exclusively humanitarian nature;
6) to continue documenting violations of electoral rights, political repression and the persecution of opposition politicians, journalists and representatives of civil society in the russian federation;
7) not to recognise the credentials of newly constituted parliamentary delegations of the russian federation formed following the constitution of the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation, and to deny them participation in the activities of international organisations, inter-parliamentary assemblies and other representative bodies, as they lack a proper democratic representative mandate;
8) to introduce and expand sanctions against the central election commission of the russian federation, its leadership and members, regional election commissions and all individuals involved in the organisation, conduct, administration, political support and international legitimisation of the illegal so-called elections to the state duma of the federal assembly of the russian federation of the ninth convocation, including in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine;
9) to uphold the principle that a state authority does not acquire international legitimacy solely through the formal conduct of voting if that voting took place without genuine political competition or independent oversight, and in gross violation of the democratic principles of elections, the rules of international law and democratic international standards of human and civil rights.