Prime Minister Edi Rama said that Russian citizens fleeing mobilization are welcome in Albania.

- Russians who leave the country because they don't want to fight are welcome in our country, Rama said.

He reiterated Albania's position that it stands by Ukraine and does not recognize the referendum organized by Russia in some of its regions.

These days, he expressed this view in his address to the UN General Assembly, adding that "in some parts of the occupied territory of Ukraine, a farce referendum is being held at gunpoint".

– It is hard to imagine that someone here can quietly accept this shameful disregard for laws, rules, norms, practices that regulate relations between states in the 21st century. These actions are against international law and much more. They not only do not reflect the free will of the people of Ukraine, but offer a miserable spectacle of exclusion from everything that brings us together under the roof of the United Nations, Rama added.

He pointed out that his country condemns these "fabricated actions in Moscow" and that his country "does not recognize any of these illegalities".