Keiv:
The United States has said it would not recognise weekend elections planned by pro-Kremlin rebels in eastern Ukraine, where more than 4,000 people have been killed according to new UN figures.
The European Union and the transatlantic NATO alliance have also condemned tomorrow’s leadership vote in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“We deplore the intent of separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine to hold illegitimate so-called local ‘elections’ on Sunday,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement yesterday.
It came as the United Nations said there have been 4,035 deaths in over six months of fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels.
More than 300 have come in the last 10 days alone, showing the fragility of a ceasefire reached in September.
The United States has said it would, however, recognise a December 7 vote planned in the region and backed by the international community.
In a four-way call earlier yesterday, the leaders of Ukraine, Germany and France urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to recognise the polls.
Meehan cautioned Russia against using such a vote “as a pretext to insert additional troops and military equipment into Ukraine, particularly in light of recent indications that the Russian military is moving forces back to the border along separatist controlled areas of eastern Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko vowed yesterday to “unite” the country after an official ballot last weekend that elected a pro-Western government.
Poroshenko said he would back rival Arseniy Yatsenyuk, whose party has a narrow lead on his own bloc, as future prime minister.
There is a “need for the country to unite”, Poroshenko said, in order to implement reforms and push Ukraine along a path towards European integration.
Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front has a narrow lead over Poroshenko’s party according to a near final count of last Sunday’s parliamentary polls, an unexpected result that left some observers fearing a new rivalry that could paralyse the government.
Ukraine’s election commission said that 99.74 per cent of votes have been counted, however the final makeup of the Verkhovna Rada is still unclear as half of the deputies are chosen by a first-past-the-post constituency system.
The presidency said on the website that the Poroshenko Bloc has secured a total of 150 seats out of 450.
