LONDON, March 28 -- The government of the United Kingdom issued text of the following speech:
Mr President,
The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action makes clear that democracy is based on the freely expressed will of the people.
But there was nothing remotely democratic about the recent, so called "elections" held in Ukrainian sovereign territory by Russia. Holding elections in Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia - all Ukrainian territory - is a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and Ukrainian sovereignty. These regions will always be Ukrainian and Russia's sham elections does not alter this fact.
Nor were the elections held in Russia democratic.
The vote was neither free nor fair. Its outcome was always clea...