Separatists in eastern Ukraine voted yesterday in controversial, Russia-backed leadership elections that Kiev branded a “power grab” and the West condemned.
The elections in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic — based around the two main rebel-held cities — were billed as bringing a degree of legitimacy to the makeshift military regimes that already control them.
However, the polls deepened an international crisis over the conflict and further undercut an already teetering truce between Ukraine’s government and the heavily armed pro-Russia separatists.
Photo: EPA
“I hope that our votes will change something. Perhaps we will finally be recognized as a real, independent country,” Tatyana Ivanovna, 65, said as she waited to cast her ballot in Donetsk’s school No. 104.
“We need to be able to live normally,” Valery Vitaliyevich, 50, said. “It is terrible being afraid for your family at every bombardment. I will vote hoping that this will help the authorities to defend our interests against Kiev.”
However, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko blasted the election as a violation of a Sept. 5 truce deal, calling them “pseudo-elections that terrorists and bandits want to organize on occupied territory.”
The Security Service of Ukraine yesterday said it was opening a criminal investigation into “the holding of so-called ‘elections,’” which it said contradicted the constitution and resembled “a power grab.”
The run-up to the polls saw a spate of intense clashes. The rebels — who deny being helped by Russia, but boast an arsenal including anti-aircraft missiles, tanks and heavy artillery — have threatened to expand their offensive to the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Mariupol.
Ukrainian authorities yesterday announced the deaths of seven more soldiers, with at least six wounded in separatist shelling, which authorities said was continuing across the conflict zone.
“The election in the Luhansk People’s Republic began with the shelling by insurgents of Girskye town,” said Gennady Moskal, head of the regional administration, which remains loyal to Kiev. “They fired on the town with [multiple-rocket systems].”
According to UN figures, more than 4,000 people have been killed in Ukraine’s conflict in the past seven months.
The elections are the latest bone of contention in the conflict that began with pro-Western demonstrators in Kiev ousting Ukraine’s Moscow-backed government in February, then spiraled rapidly, with Russia annexing the southern region of Crimea, and separatists seizing towns in the east.
Russia — which supports the rebels, but denies sending troops to fight on their side — says it will recognize the results of the elections. That angered the US and European capitals, which have imposed heavy economic sanctions on Russia, and back Kiev in condemning the polls as illegal.
In a four-way telephone call on Friday, the leaders of Ukraine, Germany and France urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to recognize the polls.
The White House also said on Friday that it considered the vote “illegitimate.”
The self-declared republics were selecting presidents and parliaments, though there was little question that the current rebel leaders — Alexander Zakharchenko in Donetsk and Igor Plotnitsky in Lugansk — would be confirmed in their posts.
Zakharchenko is already the undisputed leader in Donetsk, where he replaced a series of Russian citizens holding the top job.
Plotnitsky is a former Soviet army officer who, like many locals, yearns for the communist past.
No international election monitors were present for the vote, and no minimum turnout has been set by the organizers, reflecting uncertainty over how many voters could turn out.
“These elections are important because they will give legitimacy to our power and give us more distance from Kiev,” Donetsk People’s Republic election commission head Roman Lyagin said.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
RSS