Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the elections held from 15-17 March 2024, which were marred with fraud and the exclusion of opposition candidates.

The Ukrainian Bar Association (UBA) said the holding of Russian elections in annexed territories such as Crimea and the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions was “an unacceptable violation of international law and barbaric interference with the sovereignty of our country”.

“Any ‘elections’ held under the military control of Russia under occupation cannot be considered the right to self-determination and are legally null and void, unfree and unfair,” it added.

The association’s statement goes on to call on the international community to “take prompt, decisive, practical, and effective actions to bring the war to a definitive end”, including through an expansion of sanctions and a “full oil and gas embargo, as well as an embargo on Russian agricultural products”.

It also calls for the supply of further weapons from the US and European countries, as well as the acceleration of legal proceedings in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the establishment of a special UN tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

International and foreign legal associations should “publicly condemn the war and annexation and call on governments to take decisive action”, it adds.