Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine have named a leader of their breakaway republic after a weekend election which was denounced by Kiev and the West and further deepened a standoff with Russia over the future of the state.
Organisers of the vote today said that Alexander Zakharchenko, a 38-year-old former electrician, had easily won election as head of the "Donetsk People's Republic", an entity proclaimed by armed rebels in the days after they seized key buildings in cities of Ukraine's Russian-speaking east last April.
The unsanctioned vote, which Kiev says was encouraged by Russia, could create a new conflict and further threaten the territorial unity of Ukraine, which lost control of its Crimean peninsula in March when it was annexed by Russia.
Kiev and the West will now be looking to see if Russian president Vladimir Putin will formally recognise the validity of the vote, despite calls on him not to do so.
Up to now, Kiev's leaders have refused to hold direct talks with the separatists, whom they refer to as "terrorists". If Moscow were to recognise the vote, it would narrow options for Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.
He has ruled out trying to take back the region by force after big battlefield losses in August. But after a parliamentary election on October 26th, he is now supported by a pro-Western power structure, determined to stop the break-up of Ukraine, and he could come under pressure to take a firmer line.
Mr Putin’s first word on the weekend election could come tomorrow when he is due to appear at a ceremony in Moscow marking National Unity day.
The development is the latest twist in a political crisis that began las February with the popular overthrow of Ukraine’s Moscow-backed leader, Viktor Yanukovich.
Russia denounced the ousting as a coup by a “fascist junta” and the following month annexed Crimea and subsequently backed the separatist rebellions that sprang up in the east.
Kiev says that only direct intervention by Russian troops stopped Ukrainian government forces routing the separatists, though Russia, despite what the West says is incontrovertible proof, denies sending troops across the border.
More than 4,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has led to US and European Union sanctions against Russia.
German chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman today said Germany found it incomprehensible that “official Russian voices” were talking of recognising the election in eastern Ukraine.
Current developments in east Ukraine ruled out any premature lifting of EU economic sanctions against Russia and if the situation worsened, further sanctions may be necessary, spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
Italy does not recognise the election, foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said, adding: "There is no alternative to a political solution to the crisis."
A September 5th ceasefire brought an end to full-scale clashes between government forces and the Russian-backed separatists, though sporadic shelling particularly in the airport area of Donetsk, continues to exert pressure on the truce.
Mr Zakharchenko, the current rebel prime minister whose campaign advertisements are plastered across Donetsk, was always certain to win the vote.
In electioneering, he has compared the Donbass region’s coal deposits to the oil reserves in the United Arab Emirates and has promised pensioners a stipend that will allow them to go on safari in Australia.
Reuters