Guns on streets for Ukraine poll

– Voters in rebel-held eastern Ukraine yesterday elected new leaders after the assassination of a top separatist as Kiev urged the West to slap new sanctions on Russia.

In the Donetsk and Lugansk “People’s Republics” in Ukraine’s industrial east, voters headed to polling stations amid tightened security, with gun-toting, camouflage-clad soldiers deployed to ensure order.

Campaign posters around the Donetsk rebel stronghold called on people to vote “with Russia in your heart”.

Washington and Brussels have asked Russia not to hold what they call “illegal” polls, saying will they further hamper efforts to end a conflict that has killed more than 10 000 people since 2014.

The US embassy in Ukraine said the “sham elections will benefit only Russian proxies in eastern Ukraine, not the Ukrainian people”.

But Moscow says the elections are necessary to fill a power vacuum after top rebel Alexander Zakharchenko was killed in a bombing at a Donetsk cafe in August.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told residents of eastern Ukraine to snub the vote. “Do not participate in fake elections!” he said late on Saturday, claiming separatist leaders were Russian-controlled “puppets.”

The Ukrainian foreign ministry yesterday urged the West to slap new sanctions against Moscow.

“We are calling on the international community to ramp up political and economic pressure on the Kremlin,” the ministry said. – AFP