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Russia tells Ukraine to halt military offensive in wake of rebel elections Russia calls for talks with Kiev after separatist elections
(about 3 hours later)
Russia has called on Ukraine to halt its military offensive against pro-Moscow rebels in the east, saying the insurgent leaders have enough authority to hold talks with Kiev after elections in parts of the country under their control. Russia has given cautious backing to a vote in separatist regions of east Ukraine, which local rebels said proved they would never again be ruled by Kiev. Russia has not recognised the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” as independent, but said the vote should be respected.
The deputy foreign minister, Grigory Karasin, made the appeal after Moscow recognised separatist elections in two eastern Ukraine regions dismissed as illegal by Kiev and the west. Most other countries have dismissed the vote as illegitimate, and Kiev has said it will open criminal cases against the organisers. There were no recognised international observers present. Nevertheless, the poll was one more step in the de facto separation of the region from the rest of Ukraine.
The hastily arranged polls were boycotted by mainstream international observers and only a handful of marginal rightwing politicians from Europe claimed to be monitoring the vote. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called the elections a new obstacle for peace. “The elected representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk regions obtained a mandate to hold negotiations with central Ukrainian authorities to solve problems … via a political dialogue,” said Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Georgy Karasin, on Monday.
Vote results announced on Monday showed Alexander Zakharchenko, the rebel leader in Donetsk, claiming an easy victory. The head of the separatists in Luhansk region, Igor Plotnitsky, won by a similarly large margin. Western diplomats have been left guessing exactly what Moscow wants in the region. It seems clear the Kremlin does not want to annex the territory Crimea-style, but Moscow’s talk of negotiations between the separatists and Kiev was at odds with the noises coming out of Donetsk itself.
“The elected representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk regions obtained a mandate to hold negotiations with central Ukrainian authorities to solve problems … via a political dialogue,” Karasin said. “Kiev has to come to terms with the idea that Donbass is not part of Ukraine,” said Roman Lyagin, head of the separatists’ electoral committee. “Whether they will recognise the result of our vote or not is Kiev’s problem.”
But an angry European response, likely to be echoed in Washington, raises the temperature in the west’s dispute with Russia over its support for the separatists. The rebels have also threatened to launch a renewed military assault on the city of Mariupol, part of Donetsk region but currently under Ukrainian control.
A spokesman for the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, ruled out any premature lifting of EU economic sanctions against Russia. He said Berlin found it incomprehensible that “official Russian voices” should recognise an election held by pro-Russia separatists in east Ukraine and further sanctions might be necessary if the situation worsened. Kiev seemingly gave up its attempts to regain control of the territories militarily, after a rebel push apparently backed by regular Russian forces routed Ukrainian forces in August. According to an agreement brokered in Minsk in September, the territories should have special status within Ukraine, but the facts on the ground show that the regions have split off completely.
In the runup to the vote, rebels carried out heavy shelling of government positions across the conflict zone. The UN says more than 4,000 people have died since fighting started in April. In Donetsk, Sunday’s vote was won by Alexander Zakharchenko, a former mine electrician who has been the de factor leader of the Donetsk rebels since August, when a number of people with links to Russian security services were withdrawn and replaced with locals. He received more than 70% of the vote, according to a count announced on Monday.
“It is all the more incomprehensible that there are official Russian voices that are respecting or even recognising these so-called elections,” said the spokesman, Steffen Seibert. In the absence of real voter lists, there was no way to measure the turnout properly but there were long queues of voters at several polling stations the Guardian visited on Sunday. The majority of people said they were voting “for peace” and for a future separate from Ukraine. Many people expressed a desire for Russia to seize the region in the same way it annexed Crimea from Ukraine earlier this year.
The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, earlier called on Russia to respect “the unity of Ukraine”. Steinmeier said the elections had “gone against the letter and the spirit of the Minsk agreement”. Hundreds of thousands of people have left the region, some to other parts of Ukraine, and some to Russia, where they have been put up in refugee camps near the border or housed in cities across Russia. It is unclear how many will return.
The emboldened rebel leadership in the two separatist enclaves appeared in little mood for compromise after their victories were confirmed. The head of the rebel election body in Donetsk, Roman Lyagin, said:“Kiev has to come to terms with the idea that Donbass is not part of Ukraine. Whether they will recognise the result of our vote or not is Kiev’s problem.” Many people on the streets of Donetsk expressed happiness at the vote on Monday, as one more step towards ensuring Kiev’s forces will not return. Artillery booms are still audible in Donetsk as a small contingent of Ukrainian forces remains locked in battle with the rebels at Donetsk airport.
Russia appeared to hint in a foreign ministry statement that it would stop short of supporting outright independence for the Donbass, as Ukraine’s heavily industrial eastern regions are known collectively. “In view of the elections, it is extremely important to take active steps toward promoting sustained dialogue between central Ukrainian authorities and the representatives of the Donbass,” it said. Most of those who supported a unified Ukraine left Donetsk as things turned nastier, while the ones who have remained have kept quiet in an atmosphere of fear, in which those suspected of pro-Kiev sympathies could be arrested or worse.
“I have retained a little bit of hope that maybe this will all end, that maybe we will wake up and it will be a bad dream,” said one young woman who has remained in Donetsk throughout the year, mainly due to love for her job. “But now it’s obvious that there’s going to be nothing good here. I’m going to move to Kiev.”
Dmitry Neilo, a lawyer who is cooperating with the Donetsk authorities to help draft new laws, said currently the Donetsk People’s Republic has only passed about ten laws, and with the election of a parliament the priority will now be to draft a proper legal code and tax system. Up to now, the system has worked on an ad hoc base, with widespread reports of looting and extortion by rebel officials and gunmen.
Rebel authorities said Zakharchenko’s inauguration would take place in Donetsk on Tuesday.