Russians in Ukraine to be blocked from voting in presidential poll

Russians living in Ukraine will be unable to vote in Russia's presidential election because access to Moscow's diplomatic missions will be blocked, Kiev said Friday.

"On Sunday, March 18, 2018, security arrangements for Russia's Ukraine-based diplomatic missions in Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv will not provide access to these facilities for Russian nationals voting in the election," Ukraine's interior minister Arsen Avakov said.

The announcement came in retaliation for Russia's annexation of Crimea, which votes in a presidential election for the first time since it was taken over in 2014.

"Ukraine's interior ministry states that conducting illegal elections on Ukraine's sovereign territory in violation of all norms of international law is unacceptable," Avakov said on Facebook.

He also pointed to "Russia's aggressive hybrid war against Ukraine" and "the occupation of parts of Donetsk and Lugansk regions" in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow's foreign ministry responded by criticising what it called Ukrainian "overt interference in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation."