French foreign minister Catherine Colonna was in Kyiv Tuesday on an unannounced visit to Ukraine in a show of support for the country invaded by Russia. It was also the last day of a five-day vote in referendums over the annexation by Russia of four areas in the east of the country.
During her visit, Colonna met with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and with Ukraine's top prosecutor Andriy Kostin.
She is also held talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and visited a military airport in the city of Gostomel, north of Kyiv.
'People's Republics' referendums
The referendums took place in the Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics", which declared independence in 2014, and were recognised as such by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February this year, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions that were occupied by Russian forces after the invasion.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE,) which monitors elections in member-states, has branded referendums in Russian-controlled territories in Ukraine as "illegal" because they "can only be announced and conducted by legitimate authorities in compliance with national legislation and international standards."
The latest referendums triggered widespread condemnation from the US, the G7 and the EU with French President Emmanuel Macron calling them "cynical" and "a parody".
"If the Donbas referendum idea wasn’t so tragic it would be funny," he told reporters, according to Reuters.
'Netherlands to annex Russia'
The referendums even became topic of merciless parody by Dutch comedian Arjen Lubach, and an online video of his show targeting the referenda went viral.
Dutch TV host Arjen Lubach uncovers why Russia belongs to The Netherlands 👑. That's why a referendum is announced - Russians are invited to vote pic.twitter.com/ie0R9twzRU
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) September 23, 2022
Lubach said that Russian President Vladimir Putin "was organizing a referendum in a country where he has no territorial claim," and if Putin can do that, "then the Netherlands can do the same in Russia."
The video, partly in Russian, jokes that the Netherland's King William IV "is also your king,” adding that "when you belong to the Netherlands, your sons don’t have to die in a meaningless war against Ukraine.”
'International observers'
Meanwhile, the pro-Russian Dan-News agency reported that in total more than 400 polling stations were opened for the referendum in the Donetsk "People's Republic" alone.
The agency reported that in the first four days of the voting period, turnout had reached 86,89 percent.
The voting was witnessed by "international observers," according to the Russian Tass News Agency, which mentioned retired journalist Patrick Baab, a German observer, Janlisbert Velasco of Venezuela and several others.
But, according to the European Platform for Democratic Elections EPDE, a cooperation with Transparency International, none of the observers fulful the criteria needed for "credible election observation."
(With agencies)
