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On February 5, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko said he would order the country’s border guards not to allow Russian election observers into Ukraine to monitor its presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin later explained why his country is so opposed to Russian participation in the election monitoring mission:Ukraine faces an uncomfortable situation with its upcoming presidential election, set for March 31, and parliamentary elections, set for later this year. It is de facto at war with Russia, which annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and controls part of Ukraine’s Donbas. On the other hand, two of the members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) election monitoring mission are citizens of Russia, which raised suspicion among many Ukrainians due to Russia’s ongoing information campaign against Kyiv. On February 7, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, passed a draft law banning Russian citizens from serving as election observers for presidential and parliamentary elections. This drew criticism from Russia.Several days before the Rada approved the draft law, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin was quoted as saying that Ukraine’s decision to exclude Russian elections observers violated international law. In fact, it does not violate international law, which does not require countries have any election monitoring at all. However, some non-Russians, including pro-Ukraine Westerners, criticized the ban on Russian observers. Peter Tejler, head of the ODIHR election monitoring mission, said the decision violated Ukraine’s commitments as an OSCE member state."Of course, we are aware that a relevant bill was proposed, Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency quoted him as saying. "We are also quite aware of the position voiced by the Ukrainian authorities
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