Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – Ukraine has announced that it will not participate in the World Squash Championship (women), which is expected to be held in Egypt next December. She attributed the reason to the participation of Egyptian observers in the referendums to annex the occupied Ukrainian regions to Russia, according to an official statement.
The Ukrainian squash federation said that its withdrawal from the tournament was caused by “Egypt’s support for the fake Russian “referendum” in 4 regions announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin to include them in the Russian Federation on September 30.
The statement of the Ukrainian Federation, on Saturday, stated that observers representing the Egyptian government participated in the referendums supported by Russia in the regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, while the international community condemned them.
The Egyptian government has not stated that it has sent representatives to monitor the referendums in the areas, which are controlled by Russia and separatist forces partly loyal to it.
The statement indicated that a representative of the Egyptian government appeared to support a “fake referendum organized in conjunction with Vladimir Putin’s murderous annexation of Ukrainian lands.”
“Unfortunately, there were representatives from Egypt in this phony referendum who asserted (in their view) that the referendum was fair. Therefore, we had to take the decision to cancel the trip,” said Alina Ohonsyan, Vice-President of Ukraine for Squash.