US called the election in self-proclaimed separatist republics ‘sham’ and an ‘attempt by Moscow to institutionalize its Donbas proxies’.
“The United States joins our European Allies and partners in condemning the November 11 sham ‘elections’ in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine,” the US Department of State says.
These entities [the so-called DPR and LPR] have no place within the Minsk agreements or within Ukraine’s constitutional government, and they should be dismantled along with the illegal armed formations, Heather Nauert, Spokesperson for the Department of State, stressed.
According to the US side, if Russia calculated the illegal ‘elections’ would lead to international respect for its proxies, the international reaction proves it was mistaken as Russia’s actions have been denounced in capitals on both sides of the Atlantic and on the floors of the UN Security Council and the OSCE. They noted that the OSCE refused to monitor the ‘farce’.
“We will continue to impose Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia until Moscow fully implements the Minsk agreements and returns control of Crimea to Ukraine,” the statement reads.
On Sunday, November 11, people in Donetsk and Luhansk voted to elect new heads of the ‘republics’ and members of their ‘parliaments’. Acting LPR head Leonid Pasechnik won 68.3% of votes, and acting DPR head Denis Pushilin – 60.85% of votes. The voter turnout at the election was ‘rather high’. (77% in ‘LPR’ and 80.1% in ‘DPR), Russian news agency TASS reports.
belsat.eu
