Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine began voting in controversial leadership elections on Sunday that Kiev and the West have refused to recognise and which threaten to deepen the international crisis over the conflict. Fighting raged across the region on the eve of the vote, with seven Ukrainian fighters killed and intensive shelling at the ruins of Donetsk airport, a key battleground between the rebels and government forces. The elections in the self-declared Donetsk Peoples Republic and Lugansk Peoples Republic, which are based around the two main rebel-held cities, are designed to bring a degree of legitimacy to the makeshift military regimes that already control them. Both are choosing new presidents and parliaments, but there is little question that the current unelected rebel chiefs -- Alexander Zharchenko in Donetsk and Igor Plotnitsky in Lugansk -- will be confirmed in their posts. ift.tt/1vwJcNG Yahoo News - Top Stories
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 05:48:26 +0000