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Voters from rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine have chosen new leaders on Sunday, after Russia has challenged Western calls not to sabotage peace talks and Kiev is asking for news. sanctions against the Kremlin.
In the "People 's Republics" of Donetsk and Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine, voters went to the polls after the murder of a high rebel in a domed cafe. August.
Suspicious of possible violence, the separatist authorities reinforced security by deploying soldiers armed with camouflage to maintain order.
Campaign posters around the Donetsk rebel stronghold called for people to vote "with Russia in your heart".
Washington and Brussels have asked Russia not to organize what they call "illegal" polls, saying they would still hinder efforts to end the conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014 .
Kiev urged the West to punish Russia for violating the 2015 peace agreement, while President Petro Poroshenko called on eastern Ukrainians to postpone the vote "under the threat of fire arms".
"Do not participate in false elections!" he said Saturday.
– Hope for peace –
But Russia and local authorities rejected the calls, saying people deserved a chance to live a normal life and pointing out that the turnout was high.
"There was still mortar fire yesterday, I was even scared to go to vote," Natalya, who refused to give her name, told AFP at a polling station located on the outskirts of Donetsk, a few kilometers from the front.
The 61-year-old retiree, who lives in a building with closed windows, said that all she needed was peace and a better pension.
Another voter, Lyudmila Sharakhina, said she wanted her rebel region to join Russia.
"Of course, we would like to be part of Russia, as did Crimea," said the 60-year-old man at the polling station in a school also serving as an anti-terrorist shelter. bombs.
In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and supported the outbreak of an insurgency in eastern Ukraine, which Kiev sees as a punishment for its pivot to the west.
While fighting is fierce, the conflict regularly kills. Four Ukrainian soldiers have died in the past two days, Kiev reported on Saturday.
The peace talks are at an impasse and the agreements signed by the West in 2015 are largely moribund.
Many analysts believe that polls allow Moscow to strengthen its grip on about three percent of Ukrainian territory, where 3.7 million people live.
– & # 39; Fictitious elections & # 39; –
The US Embassy in Ukraine said that the "mock elections" would only benefit Russian representatives in eastern Ukraine, while NATO added that the elections "undermine efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict".
But Moscow, which refuses to smuggle troops and arms across the border, said the polls were needed to fill the political vacuum after the assassination of Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko.
While several candidates presented themselves in each of the two regions, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, acting leaders of Donetsk and Lugansk, had to win the victory.
"We choose our future," said Pushilin, a former operator of a notorious Russian Ponzi scheme and successor to Zakharchenko.
Local authorities have made every effort to encourage a high turnout by setting up food stalls near polling stations and offering lottery tickets to those who voted.
According to officials, more than 60 percent of eligible voters voted in the Donetsk stronghold at 1100 GMT, while the turnout was over 50 percent in the Lugansk region.
Polling stations were scheduled to close at 17:00 GMT. In addition to new leaders, voters also chose local lawmakers.
Some said their opinions mattered little.
"Two world masters – the United States and Russia – are dividing the territories," said Yury, a 50-year-old resident of Donetsk, refusing to reveal his last name.
"The hope is dead."
Vladimir, a 36-year-old customs broker, said he had not voted, adding that he did not doubt that Pushilin would win in Donetsk.
"It seems that Russia has already chosen," he told AFP, refusing to give his last name.
Western supporters of Kiev said that to settle the bloodiest European conflict since the Balkans in the 1990s, Russia should withdraw its troops from eastern Ukraine and accept a mission to maintain the peace of the UN in this country.
The last separatist elections took place in 2014 despite protests from the West and Kiev.
