Ukraine condemns planned Russian presidential election in occupied territory

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has strongly condemned Russia’s plans to hold presidential elections on occupied Ukrainian territory in the spring. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called the planned elections “null and void” and pledged that any international observers sent to monitor them would “face criminal responsibility.” Lawmakers in Russia on Thursday set the country’s 2024 presidential election for March 17. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday announced his candidacy and he is all but certain to win. Russian authorities plan to hold the presidential election in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — territories Moscow illegally annexed in September last year but does not fully control — together with the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.