Donetsk Slates Local Elections for October 18

The Donetsk People's Republic will hold local elections on October 18.

DONETSK (Sputnik) – The eastern Ukrainian self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic will hold local elections on October 18, DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko said Wednesday.

According to the DPR’s Supreme Court website, the DPR elections “have nothing to do with the elections being held in the territory of Ukraine” and will be held in accordance with the Minsk agreements.

“Preparations for the elections are continuing as planned, they will be held on October 18, 2015. These are not the first elections for us, so we already have experience,” the DPR Supreme Court website cited Zakharchenko as saying.

The DPR last held separate elections of regional heads and legislative bodies on November 2, 2014.

Local elections in the Donetsk People’s Republic and its neighbor, Lugansk People’s Republic, remain a controversial issue internationally, with German and French leaders saying earlier the actions would threaten the peace process in Eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government does not recognize the self-proclaimed republics, which voted for independence in May 2014, and Kiev has stated it would never formally recognize election results.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, voters will go to the polls on October 25 to elect governors and legislators.