Ukraine refuses to take extraordinary safety measures for Russia's Duma elections

Ukraine will not take extraordinary security measures and will protect the Russian embassy in Kiev, as well as its neighbor’s diplomatic missions in Odessa, Kharkiv, and Lviv, in “normal mode” on the day of the Duma elections, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman on Saturday.

Ukraine, he said, is a civilized country that respects international law, but it will not take extraordinary measures to safeguard the electoral process of another state. Ukraine’s law enforcement system will, therefore, run in normal mode, he said.

"There is order [in Kiev], no matter what day of the week it is,” stressed Groysman.

• Earlier, Russia requested that Ukraine take special security measures to protect its polling stations, which will be placed in the Russian Embassy in Kiev and its consulates in Kharkiv, Odessa, and Lviv.
• Ukraine said that it would be impossible for Russia to hold its elections on its territory in light of the fact that these elections would include Crimea, whose accession to Russia Kiev does not recognize.
• Russia, in turn, chose to set up polling stations on the sites of its diplomatic missions in Ukraine, as these locations are inviolable as per the terms of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
• Russian elections are scheduled for Sunday, September 18, 2016.