The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan made a statement “due to the recent increase in requests from citizens with a request to clarify certain issues regarding the situation around Ukraine.”
“In its foreign policy course the Republic of Uzbekistan is firmly committed to national interests, fundamental principles, including openness, equality, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states,” the statement says.
“Uzbekistan stands for the swift possible formation of conditions for resolving the current situation through political and diplomatic means in accordance with the norms of international law,” the Foreign Ministry added.
The Foreign Ministry also commented on "an increase in the number of arriving citizens of the Russian Federation on the territory of Uzbekistan."
“The issue of their presence in our country will be regulated by the legislation of Uzbekistan, bilateral and multilateral legal acts, including over their possible extradition,” the statement says.
While, the Foreign Ministry stressed, citizens of foreign countries who had not committed an offense shall not subjected to forced deportation.
Referendums held on September 23-27 in the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine, as reported by local central election commissions controlled by Moscow, showed the “desire of their residents to join the Russian Federation”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that these events have nothing to do with the expression of will and have no consequences for the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine and internationally recognized borders.
“Forcing people in these territories to fill out some papers at gunpoint is another crime of Russia in the course of its aggression against Ukraine. Such actions grossly violate the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, as well as the norms of international law and international obligations of Russia,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on this occasion: "Any decision to annex the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine will have no legal force and deserves condemnation."
