Victor Yanukovych

The results of the Russian parliamentary elections in Crimea were not legally valid in the eyes of Turkey, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said on Sept. 23 in a written statement.

Turkey continued to support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, said Bilgiç, adding that the weekend's elections were considered within this perspective. 

Turkey has reiterated that it does not recognize the result of a 2014 referendum in Crimea in which voters elected to join Russia, the Foreign Ministry has said in a statement on the second anniversary of the event.

Hundreds of US paratroopers will train Ukrainian soldiers from April 20 as Kiev battles to contain pro-Russian separatists in the country's east, Ukrainian interior minister Arsen Avakov said March 30.