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ELECTIONS were held in Ukraine’s breakaway Donbass region today, with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics going to the polls.
Ukraine’s government denounced the elections as a “sham,” though observers said turnout was reasonably high, at 65.9 per cent in Donetsk and 56.5 per cent in Lugansk.
The Donetsk republic has lacked clear leadership since the assassination of its prime minister Alexander Zakharchenko in a bomb attack on August 31 which it blamed on Kiev.
The two republics were formed following the seizure of power by Ukraine’s far right in the “Maidan” coup of 2014, with local anti-fascist groups forming the breakaway states to resist the new order.
They are not recognised internationally, though Russia has provided military assistance in light of Ukraine’s war to regain control of the territory, which has seen it deploy neonazi paramilitary groups such as the Azov and Aidan battalions, which are accused of committing war crimes.
