CAIRO: Egypt has denied sending observers to referendums on the annexation of Ukrainian regions to Russia, after Kyiv’s team withdrew in protest from a sporting event hosted in Cairo.
The Ukrainian Squash Federation said that it would not attend the women’s world team championships in December due to “Egypt’s support for the fake Russian referendums” last month.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said that it “categorically denied reports alleging that the government dispatched observers to monitor referendums.”
The squash federation alleged that “observers representing the Egyptian government participated in referendums supported by Russia in the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, while the international community condemned them.”
Alena Ohonesian, the federation’s vice president, said: “Unfortunately, there were representatives from Egypt in this phony referendum who asserted that the referendum was fair, so we had to take a decision to cancel the trip.”
Moscow announced the votes after a Ukrainian counterattack allowed Kyiv to regain control of most of the country’s northeastern Kharkiv region.
Russia said the referendums allowed residents to express their views. “We have said since the beginning of the process that the people of the concerned regions must decide their fate,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Results posted by Russian-installed election authorities showed that between 87 percent and 99 percent of voters approved of annexation. President Vladimir Putin announced all four regions were part of Russia on Sept. 30.
