KIEV, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine has sent letters to the United Nations, protesting the Russian presidential election in Crimea scheduled for Sunday and urging the international community to impose sanctions on the poll organizers, local media reported Saturday.
The letters, addressed to the UN secretary general, president of the Security Council and all delegations of the member states, said Kiev sees the election in Crimea as "illegal" and violating the UN Charter, the state-run Ukrinform news agency reported.
On Friday, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Facebook that the security personnel deployed by Ukraine at Russian diplomatic missions in the cities of Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv will not allow ordinary Russian citizens access to the voting.
The gesture came after Russia ignored a request from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry not to hold the March 18 election on the Crimean Peninsula.
The Russian Foreign Ministry retorted to that by saying Kiev's decision contradicted international conventions and agreements, including the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950.
Crimea was incorporated into Russia in March 2014 following a local referendum. Ukraine says the peninsula was annexed.
