Europe yesterday warned Russia to respect Ukraine’s unity, as Moscow piled pressure on Kiev by recognizing controversial rebel polls aimed at giving legitimacy to a bloody pro-Kremlin insurgency.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the elections went “against the letter and spirit” of an internationally brokered deal in September that was meant to halt the war in eastern Ukraine.
“We will judge Russia and President [Vladimir] Putin on their statements that the unity of Ukraine cannot be called into question,” he said on Twitter.
Earlier, EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Representative Federica Mogherini issued a statement slamming the polls, which saw the rebels’ Kremlin-backed leadership cruise to an expected victory as “a new obstacle on the path towards peace in Ukraine.”
The EU’s angry response, likely to be echoed in Washington, raised the tension in the West’s dispute with Moscow over its support for separatists who have torn a swathe of Ukraine’s industrial heartland from the pro-Western Kiev government’s control.
Russia, which risks intensifying already punishing EU and US sanctions, ignored Western appeals ahead of the vote and gave its full backing to elections that Kiev branded an illegal “farce.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin demanded that Kiev call a definitive end to military operations in the east and talk to the rebels on equal terms.
Separatist leaders described the polls as a step toward formalizing their de facto independence from Ukraine. Emboldened by the votes, rebel leaders indicated they were in little mood for compromise.
“Ukraine does not want peace, as it claims. Obviously it is playing a double game,” the newly elected president of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, told journalists.
Zakharchenko took 75 percent of the about 1 million votes cast, according to final results released by rebel election officials.
In neighboring Luhansk region, current insurgent supremo Igor Plotnitsky, a former Soviet army officer, picked up about 63 percent, the rebels said.
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