Ukraine Rebels Voting in Controversial Election [View all]

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: Voice of America

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are voting Sunday in controversial elections that Kyiv and the West say they will not recognize.

The separatists who control parts of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions are holding elections for leadership and legislative bodies in the areas they control.

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The election in eastern Ukraine comes a week after parliamentary elections were held throughout the remainder of Ukraine, with candidates favoring closer ties with other European countries winning a significant plurality of the seats. People living in the east did not vote in the October 26 balloting.

The United Nations, the European Union and the United States have called the rebel vote illegal, saying it violates Ukraine's constitution and the cease-fire agreement reached September 5 between separatists and Ukraine's government. Russia has said it will recognize the results of the separatist elections. EU leaders have urged Russia to ignore those results.

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Read more: http://www.voanews.com/content/ukraine/2504946.html

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VOA's language is a little tendentious. I think it's residents of the region voting, not "pro-Russian separatists." We shall see, I guess.

Meanwhile, the article also reports claims of a convoy of Russian vehicles entering the region. The Ukraine military reports "intensive movement" of the convoy into Ukraine, but VOA notes that it's not clear "whether they were no or existing forces in the rebel-held region." For what it's worth, I listened to an RT reporter scoff at the claims of Russian military vehicles going to Ukraine this morning.