DONETSK, November 1 (RIA Novosti) — Fighting flared up early Saturday at the airport north of Donetsk as the east Ukrainian city is getting ready for Sunday’s elections, a RIA Novosti correspondent says.
Artillery fire can also be heard in downtown Donetsk, our correspondent says. The Donetsk administration confirmed that “fierce heavy artillery fire and blasts are heard” across the entire city, though, it added, that fighting had not disrupted transport. It also described the previous night as “a relatively calm” one.
But clashes between pro-government troops and local militias are just a backdrop to the upcoming polls in the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions. According to our correspondent in the city of Donetsk, preparations in the city are in full swing. Organizers are furnishing polling stations and setting up polling booths, some stations still need to have window panes put in after they were shattered by the continuing cannonade.
On Sunday, residents in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, also known as the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, will vote for regional leaders and legislative bodies.
The polls will be monitored by observers from the United States, France and Germany, although authorities in Luhansk said only 28 had been granted accreditation as of Friday.
The election commission chief in the Donetsk region said earlier that preliminary results were to be announced “on Sunday evening, shortly after the polls close."
Following a February coup in Kiev, people in southeastern Ukraine established so-called people’s republics that later declared independence. The crisis escalated in mid-April, when Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against anti-government militias in the region.
After a breakthrough meeting of the trilateral Contact Group in Minsk on September 5, which resulted in the establishment of a ceasefire in the volatile regions, Ukraine adopted a law granting special statuses to parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.
The law also stipulates that local elections are to take place in these regions on December 7. However, the self-proclaimed republics have set the date for their own elections for regional leaders and legislative bodies for November 2.
The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have spoken out against the upcoming elections claiming they undermined the Minsk agreements. Russia said it was going to recognize the results of the polls since they would promote the “legitimization of power” in the region.
