US Embassy in Kiev urges Donbass residents to boycott November 11 elections

The US Embassy in Ukraine has urged residents of eastern Ukraine to boycott the elections of heads of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republic (DPR and LPR) scheduled for November 11.

"While Ukraine takes positive steps to promot peace, Russia is stoking conflict by staging sham 'elections'. Residents of eastern Ukraine should boycott these 'elections', which are not in line with either Minsk agreements or Ukrainian law," the US Embassy in Ukraine wrote on its Twitter microblog on Wednesday.

The announcement of the local elections scheduled for November 11 was condemned by Kiev and described as the violation of Ukrainian laws and of the Minsk Agreements. The West supported Kiev. On October 30, the US, France, the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Poland initiated the discussion of the upcoming Donbass election at the UN Security Council session, calling them illegal. At the same time, UN SC members ignored Russia's suggestion to invite representatives of the self-proclaimed republics to the session.

DPR and LPR stress, however, that holding elections is aimed at preventing power vacuum in the self-proclaimed republics and ensuring security of local residents. "The main argument put forward by our 'Western friends' is that the elections contradict the Minsk Agreements. Such argument is baseless," acting DPR head Denis Pushilin said. "The Package of Measures on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements envisages coordination between the sides only when it comes to municipal elections. Nothing is said there about electing heads and parliament members. In this sense, we have a solid foundation," he added.

More than 90 foreign observers from over 20 countries already confirmed monitoring elections in DPR and LPR.