Ethnic Russians holding elections in eastern Ukraine
Ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine are holding elections to choose parliament members and a new leader, amid fresh clashes that have reportedly left two Ukrainian soldiers dead.
Officials say hundreds of polling stations across the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics opened early on Sunday.
Polling stations are scheduled to close at 1700 GMT, and the initial results will be announced on Monday.
Donetsk and Lugansk — regions home to ethnic Russians and collectively known as the Donbass — have been beset by armed conflict since 2014. The conflict, between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russia forces, has so far left over 10,000 people dead and more than a million others displaced, according to the United Nations.
The former leader of Donetsk was killed in a bombing attack this year.
Russia maintains that the ethnic Russians should be able to establish order.
“People simply need to live, get on with their lives, and ensure order in the region under a blockade and permanent threats of the use of force by Ukrainian authorities,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
While Kiev and its Western backers have refused to recognize the right of the people in the Donbass to hold elections, international observers have already arrived in the region to monitor the elections, according to the pro-Russian forces.
Election organizers have said there are monitors from 22 countries, including Belgium, Brazil, Hungary, Germany, Greece, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Ireland, Yemen, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Syria, the United States, Turkey, and Finland.
The Donetsk region’s acting leader, Denis Pushilin, is set to officially fill the place of the slain leader Alexander Zakharchenko, who was killed in August.
New violence
Meanwhile, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the most recent fighting in the country's east, according to the Ukrainian military.
“Over the past 24 hours, two soldiers received fatal wounds as a result of hostilities,” military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told a briefing.
He claimed the soldiers had been killed near Lugansk by large-caliber mortars.
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