No elections in occupied territories in presence of foreign troops - Poroshenko

“Holding elections in the occupied territory in the presence of foreign occupational troops is firmly and absolutely impossible,” the Head of State said this at a briefing with Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras, answering the question about the recent statement made by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Ukraine Ernst Reichel. “One thing is when foreign troops are present with the consent of the receiving state. We can draw parallels with the Russian base in Sevastopol - we have been holding elections many times when Russian troops have been present in Sevastopol with the consent of Ukraine. And it is totally inadmissible when the occupational troops will try to promote the elections under the muzzles of machine guns,” Poroshenko stressed. The President has once again noted that the illegal referendum in Crimea held in the presence of dozens of thousands of Russian troops did not meet the legislation and was inadmissible. “Holding elections in the presence of troops is similarly impossible. The security component, which is included in the roadmap on the settlement of the situation with Russian aggression, is one of the main conditions. And the withdrawal of Russian troops is a prerequisite,” the President said.