Separatist Leaders Re-elected As Moscow Cements Hold On East Ukraine

Residents of Russian-backed areas of eastern Ukraine have re-elected separatist leaders, results showed Monday, cementing Moscow's hold on the disputed regions.

Donetsk, Ukraine, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Nov, 2018 ) :Residents of Russian-backed areas of eastern Ukraine have re-elected separatist leaders, results showed Monday, cementing Moscow's hold on the disputed regions.

Kiev and its Western allies denounced the weekend elections as a sham but Russia insisted they were a step forward in the regions' drive for independence.

Analysts say the votes will allow Moscow to claim the region's leaders as democratically elected representatives in future talks with Kiev, although few expect Ukraine's moribund peace process to be revived any time soon.

Gun-toting, camouflage-clad guards were deployed to ensure order during Sunday's vote in the Donetsk and Lugansk "People's Republics", which have been controlled by separatists since breaking away from Ukraine's pro-Western government in 2014.

Authorities pulled out all the stops to encourage a high turnout, setting up food stalls near polling stations and offering lottery tickets to those who voted.

Denis Pushilin, the 37-year-old acting Donetsk leader and a former negotiator with Kiev, was elected with 61 percent of the vote with almost all ballots counted, the local electoral commission said.

He had been in charge of the region following the killing of the rebel Donetsk "president" in a bomb attack in August.

Leonid Pasechnik, 48, the acting Lugansk leader and previously the regional head of the Ukrainian security service, took 68 percent of the vote.

Kiev's central election commission dismissed the results as of no consequence, saying it "categorically rejects any legal significance of these illegal and manipulative elections".

- Peace talks in deadlock - Alexei Makarkin of the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies, said the elections were about solidifying the authority of the regions' separatist governments.

"Without these elections, they would have had less legitimacy than their predecessors," he said.

Analysts said the Kremlin had greater control over Pushilin than his predecessor, and that the polls were a way to increase its influence in the regions, which represent about three percent of the Ukrainian mainland.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel branded the polls illegal, following a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on the sidelines of World War I commemorations Sunday also attended by Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

"These so-called elections undermine the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine," the pair said in a statement.

Washington and Brussels had asked Russia not to allow the polls to go ahead, arguing they would further hamper efforts to end a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people over four years.

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and supported the outbreak of the insurgency in eastern Ukraine in what Kiev sees as punishment for a pivot to the West.

While heavy fighting is over, the conflict regularly claims the lives of soldiers and civilians. Kiev said on Saturday that four Ukrainian soldiers had died in recent days.

Peace negotiations have hit deadlock and Western-backed accords agreed in 2015 are largely dead in the water.

Moscow, which denies accusations of funnelling troops and arms across the border, said the polls were necessary to fill the power vacuum after the assassination of Donetsk leader Alexander Zakharchenko.

Moscow pointed the finger at Ukraine for his killing while Kiev blamed infighting among the separatists.

Officials said more than 80 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots in Donetsk, while turnout stood at 77 percent in Lugansk.

Ukraine is set for a presidential election of its own next year, although as yet there is no clear frontrunner.

"Russia will be watching the results of the 2019 elections in Ukraine. It will want the future president to start negotiations with Pushilin and Pasechnik," Makarkin said.